Land Of Confusion
by Roseprincess1
Summary: Follow Up to If That's What it Takes. Takes place almost immedieately after.Angel and Optimus go to cybertron to act on the information from her visions. What they have to face in thier search will introduce them to new characters, complications and choic
1. Chapter 1

Notes: This story is the follow up to "If that's what it takes". It takes place almost directly after the events of that story. It is rated T on the rating system, however I am going to post a further warning here rating this thing on my own PG-13 due to some violence and other imagery. If it's too bad let me know and I will move this thing to the M category.

Also, I am making some suppositions about the parentage and family relationships of the TF characters that are in no way what so ever cannon, just my own weird little interpretation.

Thanks RP1

Legal Stuff: Don't own the TF's, Don't own the song. All of this is purely for entertainment.

Land Of Confusion: Part 1

The last time that I had been on Cybertron it had been a complete and utter accident. Orion and I had gotten captured in some lame attempt to trade the two of us for a prisoner that the Autobots were holding. Up until then I had always wondered where Orion had come from and how he had become the person that he was. Those few days that we were here I got to learn a bit more about my husband. I had thought that someday the both of us would come back to this world for one reason or another. Never in a million years would I have believed that it would be for something like this.

"Deja vu," I muttered.

"What?"

I looked up to, for once; see Orion at his natural size, fully masked and for the moment looking down at me.

"Nothing," I told him, "I just said deja vu. I was thinking about the last time that we were here."

"Ah," He nodded.

"So?"

"So what," he finished.

"So, who pray tell, is it that you have me waiting for here and how is this person going to help us? And isn't landing right smack out in the open a little bit brazen?"

I could see Him half-smile behind the mask as he turned to look out over the landing pad, "Considering the fact that the Decepticons are focusing on stealth for the moment, out in the open is the best place to be to stay away from them. As for who we are meeting, his name is Ultra Magnus."

"That answers two of my questions," I agreed, "but that still doesn't tell me how this person is going to help us with what we are here for."

"I'm hoping that he can tell us when he gets here."

"So his name is Ultramagnus?" I asked.

"Two words," Orion corrected, "Ultra Magnus."

"And you know him how?"

I was expecting a lot of things to happen on this trip, however I was not expecting a simple question like that to illicit the response it did. He flushed and suddenly looked slightly embarrassed.

"He's my twin brother."

Okay, I hadn't seen that one coming, I have to admit.

"Twin brother," I blinked, "Is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Orion was suddenly doing a good job of feigning complete and utter innocence.

"Not really."

"Uh huh," I took my own look around and then shook my head, "Well he'd better be worth the wait is all I have to say."

"He will be," Orion assured me.

I opened my mouth to say something back to him when I heard the noise pick up off in the distance. For a few moments I couldn't place it and then I managed to identify where I had heard something like it before. It sounded exactly like Orion when he was out on the road. A few moments later the source of the sound pulled into view and all I could do was stand there next to my gear and gape.

This new Cybertronian did indeed look almost identical to Orion, in his alt-mode any how. There were only two real differences. The type of trailer he was pulling, and his color scheme. I managed to get my mouth shut as he finally transformed, only to have it drop open again when I saw his robot mode. I was thinking that the resemblance between Orion and his twin would be something like Sunstreaker and Sideswipes. Close, not identical but very close. So I was shocked and even a little bit disappointed when there turned out to be almost no resemblance at all between them. I just couldn't help but stand there and stare as the two of them greeted each other.

Finally they turned their attention to me. I was suddenly overcome by the urge to crawl under a rock somewhere and hide.

"So," Ultra Magnus grinned down at me, "You must be the Angel I've heard so much about."

"That would be me," I some how got out, "And you are?"

The newcomer grinned and pointed at Orion, "Prime's brother."

I could tell that was an old joke between the two of them due to the fact that Orion promptly made a face under his mask and Ultra Magnus beamed.

"It's nice to meet you," I told him at last.

"And it's a real honor to meet you," he bowed to me.

Suddenly the pleasantries were over and I could see both of them switch into military mode.

"Well, I hate to do this to the two of you," He motioned to where we were, "But despite the fact that they want to stay hidden. Being out in the open this long is pressing even that kind of luck."

Orion and I nodded and answered, "Right," in perfect unison.

"Let me get you two to the base and then we can fill each other in on all the gory details."

So I few moments later both Magnus and Orion had transformed, I had tossed my gear into Orion's trailer, and we pulled out of there almost the second I heard the latch on my seat belt click.

I sat there for a moment wondering which direction we would be going in when I suddenly got my answer. The thing that struck me as the strangest though was that we didn't head back into the city. I had assumed that we would head off in the direction of Iacon, when what we did was take the utterly opposite route and head out into the planet's wastelands.

Eventually we made it to someplace that I can only equivocate to the Mohave or the Sahara back on Earth. We were for all intents and purposes out in the middle of nowhere. By that point I had given up trying to second-guess what was going on, so I just sat there and waited to see what was in store for us next.

Ultra Magnus stopped before a patch of ground and just sat there for a few moments. Then out of nowhere he gave the loudest sharpest blast on his horn that I have ever heard come out of an 18-wheeler. Again I received another shock when Magnus got a response. The ground in front of him began to open up and with in a few moments there was an opening more than big enough for both of them to go down. Another sharp blast of his horn signaled for us to follow him down. Orion answered this time with his own blast and proceeded to follow his brother down into the unlit depths below.

We sat there for a second just barely able to see Magnus' bumper in front of us despite Orion having his high beams on. Lights snapped on around us so suddenly that I jumped about a foot off of my seat and had to stifle a scream of surprise. I got myself calmed down and slid out of Orion's cab so I could take a look around the place myself.

It was indeed a fully functional base with all the comforts of the Ark, and then some. Any Autobot that I knew would not only have felt at home there but would have been perfectly content to stay there as well. I stood there taking a good long look around, and probably would have gone on staring if not for the fact that Orion managed to get my attention.

"Angel?"

I jumped about a foot again and then turned back to face him, "What?"

"Your bags," he prompted.

"Oh," I grinned sheepishly, "right."

I moved around to the back of his trailer and began working all of my stuff down from there. He waited a few moments and then once again the old debate had to get going again. The world, the universe might be coming to an end, but we would still have to have this discussion yet again.

"Would you please hurry?" He called.

"Well if you'd just un-hitch and transform this would be easier." I yelled back.

"No."

We had had this discussion about a million times in during all of the traveling that we had done with each other. Just like always, it managed to somehow attract a peanut gallery that had to give comments. In this case it was Ultra Magnus. He showed up and looked us over just as I was tugging the last bag down from back.

"Did you have to bring that many outfits?" He asked.

"Outfits," I blinked up at him, "What outfits?"

"That's not what's in the bag?"

"No," I told him flatly.

I finally got the thing down and Orion was able to transform at last.

"So what's in there," Magnus just had to keep going.

I rolled my eyes and looked up at my husband.

"Do you wanna tell him, or shall I?"

I could see the grin go from aerial to aerial behind his mask.

"Why don't you just show him?" Orion offered, "I would just love to see the look on his face."

So I obliged the leader of the Autobots and began to unzip the bags. This displayed just what I had been buying the night that I had wound up in the hospital back home. I can still see the look on the shop owner's face as he looked from the growing pile of munitions to myself and then back again. He finally managed to take a breath and then just had to ask me, was I restaging the battle of Normandy.

I had to smile over the memory just as I had to grin over the look that the big Mech I was displaying my goodies to, got on his face.

"Uhhhh...," Was all that he could manage to get out.

"Gee, that was eloquent." I joked, "You really thought all of this was clothes?"

Orion was still grinning as he leaned against the wall and gloated.

"I told you she was more like one of our Femmes than like a human."

Magnus shook his head and finally admitted defeat.

"Okay, I give!" He held up his hands in surrender.

We all laughed over that for a good five minutes but finally managed to calm down. As the giggles died in me my thoughts turned to the reason that we were here and just how we were going to do what we had come here to do.

"So," I began, "Now that we've broken the ice, I want you to tell me how you're going to help me find the person that I'm looking for."

Magnus sobered and was suddenly all business again, "Well you said that you didn't remember his name correct?"

"That's right," I confirmed, "but I will know the person if I see them."

"That's what Alpha Trion told us when he sent us the warning," he started walking deeper into the base and motioned for us to follow. We walked deeper into the base with him and he did his best to explain what steps that they had taken.

"Well because we didn't know what to do, and mainly because its official protocol to send all the younger members to ground."

"So what," I was trying my best to understand all of this, "So all of those kids we met that one time are in hiding?"

"That's right Miss," a gravely voice answered me from a console chair.

"Optimus, you already know Kup." Optimus nodded to confirm that and Magnus motioned to me. "This is Miss Angel."

"So," I looked at this mech that had to at least be Ironhide's age over, "You're the lil' human femme every one is bragging on."

Now it was official, I was stunned to say the very least.

"They were?" I squeaked, "When?"

"It was all over the place Lass," he continued to smile, "after you were here, all those kids could do was go on and on about what a great couple you and Prime were. Arcee keeps on saying that she hopes she can find a love like that some day. All of 'em are really fond of you."

"Whoa." I was still shocked.

"Now then," Orion brought all of us back to the task at hand, "So you sent all of these kids out to hide. How do we find them?"

"Well," Kup scratched the bridge of his nose and continued, "The signal we sent out ordered all of them into hiding and each of them into a different location. When the time comes for us to find them each one of them has a homing signal to activate. It's a closed channel so only we will be able to track it. Plus each of the kids has orders to activate their signal exactly 24 hours after the one before them in the sequence goes off."

"So we track that signal to find them then?" I finished.

"Exactly."

"Hold it," I stopped him, "How do we know that the Cons can't trace these signals?"

"That's why it's a closed channel," Magnus finally chimed in, "Only we know what to look for and how to interpret it. Any one else who might see it would think it was just more static, just one more sensor ghost from space."

It sounded to me like a good plan, for all intents and purposes these guys up here seemed to have thought of everything that they could.

I turned and looked up at Orion, "Well, do you want to get settled into the base first or do you want to start now?"

"Well we need to go after them as soon as possible…" he trailed off.

"But," I prompted.

"But, I need time to go over the layout of the plan and you need time to unpack."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "If you think that we need to take the time to rest before we start the mission then just say so! Don't sit there and make up lame excuses."

Now it was his turn to look slightly embarrassed, "Alright fine, I think that we should take the time to rest and collect our wits before we start out on the mission."

"See now?" I shot back, "That didn't hurt did it?"

"Yes," Orion answered flatly.

While all of that discussion was going on Kup and Magnus were there watching us gaping ever so slightly.

"I need to get my bags," I called up to Magnus.

He promptly snapped out of it and shut his mouth quickly in an attempt to hide his "DUH" expression from a few moments ago.

"Of course," He nodded, "Let me show you and Prime to your quarters."

We turned to head out and I caught the look on Kup's face. Somehow I had the feeling that I was going to be the hot topic for scuttlebutt around the base for the next few days.

We finally got to our room and I started pulling out all of my gear, for all intents and purposes setting up camp there in the room. Orion watched me for a few moments and then had to comment on it.

"Well you certainly came prepared."

"Hey," I growled back, "Last time I was here I had on nothing but a tee shirt and jeans. I bloody near froze my ass off. I wanted to be ready this time."

He laughed a bit, "Well I suppose you were roughing it a bit last time."

I was about to answer him when I found something in my bag that I knew I hadn't put there. I pulled the little brown package out of the bag and gave it the once over.

"Orion," I held it up for him, "Do you have any idea what this is?"

"What?" he leaned down for a look, "Oh THAT!"

I could hear the grin come back again under his mask.

"Open it and find out."

Now I was intrigued, so I pulled off the brown wrapping paper and found yet another package with in that one. This time there was a note attached. I

I unfolded the thing and immediately recognized Prowl's English scrawl. Mr. Logic and Perfection turned out to have some of the worst handwriting of any one person that I had ever seen before. I managed to finally decipher it and read what it said.

_Now your protected by the Gods…Make sure that you stay alive so that you can bring these back to us._

It was signed by Prowl, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

I froze for about three seconds and then tore the inner paper off, gaping at what I found on the other side.

Orion had changed down to his human size and came up to put his arms around me as he looked over my shoulder at them.

He laughed softly, "Those three agreed to split a set. I guess they wanted you to have them for good luck."

I continued to look at the gift for a few more moment an then it happened. Just like that that was all it took for all of my hard won resolve to fall apart and the mask that I had so carefully constructed for myself to fell to pieces.

"HEY NOW!" Orion spun me around to look at him, "They didn't give you those to make you cry."

I looked up at him, "I know, it's just…"

"Hush," He put his arms around me, "You never have to explain anything to me."

I buried my self in his arms and the two of us sank down and sat there on the floor of our quarters until I managed to regain my composure. Somehow I got myself ready to go out and face the world again but I couldn't get that simple gift out of my mind.

All of the guys back home cared about me, and all of them believed in me. I realized right then that I had all of their faith and love as well as Orion's. Now all I had to do was to prove that I was worthy of that.

I swore right then and there that I would find a way to live. I may have wanted to die in the past, but now I had no choice. I was going to see this through to the very end, no matter what.


	2. Chapter 2

Notes: I am giving this chapter and all of those that follow thier own ratings. Specifically PG-13, for violence. Again if it turns out to be to intense in futuer chapters I will move this story, which is currently T, to the M catergory.

Thx

RP1

Land Of Confusion: Part 2

It took a while but eventually the two of us managed to get into a condition to act like people that were there for a rescue mission. We finally headed out to the main area of the base too tell every one that we were ready to begin when something very odd happened. We found Magnus and Kup there waiting for us just like they had promised, however there were several others perched in various places. All of them promptly perked up and moved over to where we had walked in. I couldn't really place their expressions that well but from where I was standing they looked something akin to awe.

"What?" I asked, "Is my fly down or something?"

That took about ten seconds for every person there to compute. When it did every single one of them burst out laughing simultaneously. Eventually all of them calmed down enough for Magnus to introduce me to these colorful characters.

"Not at all Miss Angel," he managed, "These guys are my main unit, The Wreckers."

"OooooKay…" I was still drawing a complete and utter blank. "So why are they all looking at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my ears?"

That got all of them going again and it took yet another five minutes before any one was able to for words coherent enough to tell me what was going on. The one who spoke up turned out to be a character named Topspin.

"Sorry if we stared at you Ma'am," He suddenly froze and wondered what the glare was for, but managed to go on.

"We all just wanted to see you in person, you're famous!"

"I Wha….?" Now it was my turn to look stupid.

"Well," Another named Whirl chimed in, "You are, least with us."

"Okay…So what did I do to get famous?"

Yet another one named Twin Twist started up here, "Well lesee, you dumped PINK paint on Megatron, shot out his and Motormaster's optics…"

"Anyhow," Magnus broke in, "You have quite the reputation here. Not to mention status as a badass worthy of membership in this motley crew."

"Do you have the RIGHT girl?" I was stunned. "You do realize I'm the idiot that got herself kidnapped."

"So what?" Whirl shot back, "Do you think there's a member of the Wreckers that hasn't been at the so-called mercy of a Decepticon at least once?"

I looked up to Orion now completely and utterly lost.

He smiled back down at me, "You see Angel, the fact that you were able to live through something that would have driven most people insane proves to these guys that you are just that much tougher."

I was still lost, "Okay, so what's the point of all of this?"

"Simple," He finished with a shrug, "They want to make you an official member of the team."

"Say WHAT?"

I think at that point I almost swallowed my own dammed tongue.

"Please say yes," Magnus almost begged, "You have no idea what it would do for the morale of my Men if you agreed."

I was still numb with shock but I some how managed to nod my head yes, as what I had been given sunk into my poor brain.

"This is so AWSOME!" yet another member named Roadbuster yelled.

He then proceeded to turn to the rest of the group and followed by high-five and rough slaps on the back all around.

Magnus beamed at me and bent down extending his hand. There in the middle of it was what must have been something of a great effort on their part, to make something that small. What it was, was a small black armband with my status as a member of the team proudly emblazoned on the side. I picked it up and looked at it for a few moments then some how managed to get the thing up over the sleeve of my green BTU shirt. Once the thing was in place I was rewarded with what had to be some of the loudest cheering that the base had probably ever heard. I glanced up at Orion and noticed that he seemed to be perfectly at ease with this, as if this sort of thing happened to him all of the time.

Looking back later I would realize that this bit of silly revelry was the last happy time that any of us would have for a very long time to come. Much too soon after I had agreed to take the rank, reality descended upon us and we knew that we had to get back to what we had come here to do.

We all moved into the main communications center of the base and watched tersely as the first of the signals went out. Went out to tell those kids in hiding out there that we were here to find them and it was time to tell us where to look. We had no idea how long it would take for the first reply to come back, and so we were all left to play the waiting game.

Being ready to mobilize, but not knowing where that action would take us, happened to be one of the most frustrating things that I have ever had to go through. Still there was no way that we could hurry this along and there was nothing more we could do until someone notified us.

I don't want to say that I was bored but I did let my mind begin to wander some as I sat there. I watched Orion and Magnus for a while and found myself wondering more and more about the answer to a question my mind had concocted. I finally got the nerve to wave my husband over and ask him for an answer to it.

"What's the matter?"

"Well this isn't world shattering Orion, in fact its probably not even polite. But well I just want to know."

"Know what?" He looked at me trying to guess what was on my mind.

"Well remember what you told me about you and Ultra Magnus?"

He nodded affirmatively

"I thought you told me that you two were twins? You know like Sunny and Siders?"

"We are," He confirmed again.

"So ummm…" I searched for an appropriate way to put it, "How come you two don't look alike? You two fraternal or something?"

Orion looked down at me for a second and made a really funny smothered sound that I knew as his suppressed laugh. This action promptly drew Ultra Magnus over to us to see what was going on, like the moth to the proverbial flame.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"She wants to know why the two of us don't look alike," Orion managed.

Magnus promptly started flushing and looked utterly embarrassed.

"You gonna ride me over that still?" He shot.

"No," Orion finally managed to regain his composure, "I just want you to tell her."

"FINE!" Magnus sighed.

"This," He paused and motioned to himself, "is armor." He then turned back to Orion, "There, happy now?"

"Why are you wearing armor?" I promptly blurted.

Magnus flushed more as I got my answer.

"He's Paranoid," Orion teased.

He then proceeded to get a serious.

"A long time ago Magnus was hurt in a battle," Orion stared off for a few seconds into the past, "It was a longtime before medical technology caught up enough to treat the injuries that he had. So he had to wear that armor to survive."

"So when they treated him?" I asked.

"When they fixed me," Magnus shrugged, "by then I was so used to it that I just kept on wearing it."

"Well," I paused for a second and thought it over, "I guess I can see where he's coming from on all of that."

"Of course," Orion nodded, "But it's still fun to get a rise out of him."

I watched as Magnus pouted for a few seconds and then softened.

"Heh," He laughed, "I guess she really has changed you Optimus, You haven't made that joke in years."

"What can I say," Orion shrugged, "Even I'm allowed a laugh every now and then."

I opened my mouth to comment about how good it was to see them getting along, when it happened. It rang through the whole base like the cry of some kind of bird of prey. Making sure that each and ever person knew that something was going on.

Every trace of boredom was gone as all of us sprang up, ready to follow the signal to wherever it would lead us. All of us crowded around the screen to see where it was coming from and where we had to go to find this first person who signaled us. Kup tapped a few more keys on the board and the next moment the map was over laid with the signal.

"It's Arcee," He stated simply.

Kup looked up to Magnus like he was about to say something for a few seconds. Magnus however cut him off.

"She's in the Dead End district," He leaned in for a closer look, "Northern sector from the looks of it."

Magnus paused for a moment, all of the mirth gone from his face and a deadly serious manner falling over him. I opened my mouth to comment on what I had just seen and to ask what was happening when orders began to be issued by Orion.

"Okay people," He called, "We have a young lady to go find. Let's do this clean and quick as possible so we can get her and all of the kids back home."

That was all that it took. In a few seconds I could plainly see how these guys had gotten their reputation for being some of the best. In less time than it took me to run and get my own gear they were ready and waiting to pull out. I jumped up into Orion's cab and the whole convoy took off into the dark Cybertronian night, driving in a way I only wished that we could when we were back on earth.

As we drove out to our destination I noticed that Magnus was right up in the front with the two of us, almost crowding us out of the way and taking point for his own position. I was still wondering about his strange change in demeanor, but I refused to say a whole lot about it. I just spent most of my time staring out of Orion's window and wondering why I was suddenly beset by the worst feeling of dread that I had ever had in my whole life.

About ten more minutes later we made it to where we were going and I found out just why this place had gotten its name.

"Dead End"

To be perfectly blunt that's exactly what it was. It looked down right awful, burnt out, charred and left to rot. It was so bad that it made the ruins of Iacon look like paradise by comparison. The only thing that even came to mind when I looked at this place was that it must have been something similar that the survivors of Hiroshima saw on the morning after. How anyone or anything could possibly be alive in that place was beyond me. But, if being around Orion has taught me anything at all, it's taught me appearances can be deceiving. This desiccated ruin might very well be the best place in the universe to hide buried treasure. Hopefully when we found it, our "Treasure" would still be alive and well and waiting for us to come find her.

As it would turn out, hopefully turned out to be the worst possible statement that could have been made about our situation. Hopefully would be nothing more than just a fragile dream that would shatter in the face of hard, cruel reality. Still we tried to keep up hope until the moment we saw what was left of the door, nothing but a huge smoking crater in the side of one pockmarked wall.

"Oh no," was all that I really managed to get out to cover the situation.

I almost flung myself out of Orion's cab and pulled my own weapon around to get ready to help out with what we were there for. Orion transformed and Magnus appeared to take his place beside his brother.

"I want you two to cover us," Orion told Magnus and myself, "I'm going to take point here. All of the rest of you follow me in, and then cover follows us in when you hear the signal."

I watched my Husband move off into the shell of the safe house and all I could think of was for him to be careful. As selfish as that might seem, I was still worried about him and I hoped that he would make it out of this alive. A few tense moments later the two of us providing cover got the signal to move in and we cautiously followed the path that those before us had taken.

I was more than a little bit jumpy as we made our way in there and looked around. The feeling of dread that had imbedded itself in the pit of my stomach was growing stronger by the moment and there was nothing I could do to make myself feel better. Even seeing the inside of the safe house did little to reassure me, although it should have.

Strangely enough, the place seemed to be in perfect order. Though we looked the place over trying to find something, the truth was there wasn't really anything there to find. The main room seemed almost to be in perfect order, only little bits and pieces of things out of place showed that someone had ever been in there. I stood there looking the place over trying very hard to get the feeling of doom in my heart to go away. There was utterly no reason to feel that way. Still it wouldn't stop.

The thing that bothered me the most wasn't what we found. It was what we didn't find. The fact that there was nothing to find freaked me out even more than if something had been glaringly obvious.

"Well," Magnus seemed some what relieved, "I can't find any sign that she was even here."

"Maybe the homing signal malfunctioned?" Topspin offered.

"More like she activated it and then had to run for some reason," Twin Twist added.

"That doesn't seem right," Orion paused as he looked around the place again, "Arcee isn't the type that would leave like that. Besides, the signal is still coming from in here somewhere."

While all of them were talking and trying to solve what was going on, I became aware of something strange. It was a sound that had been there all along but no one except me seemed to have noticed it. I stopped what I was doing and just concentrated on it for a moment. The harder I tried to identify what it was the more other sounds around me seemed to get drowned out.

As dumb as I knew it was to walk off by myself on a strange planet, I still had to get some distance between me and guys to try and solve my own mystery. To define and give a name to what it was that was slowly but surely driving me to complete and utter distraction. It was a state of distraction that seemed to drag me farther and farther away from the group and deeper into darkness.

The deeper into that dark I walked the louder the sound became, and the closer I came to putting some kind of label on it. I knew this sound or something very much like it from somewhere before. It was a very common sound and that I had heard a million times before, but that for some strange reason this time had a most ominous portent to it.

That was when I noticed it. It looked like a long dark hallway that someone had moved a book shelf, or something similar over to hide. Of course someone the size of Orion or the guys wouldn't notice it. Just like a human might walk through an old Carnegie style library and never see the door smooshed between the two bookcases. To me however, it was a huge gaping black hole that was painfully obvious now that I had noticed it. That was when it also occurred to me that this, this deep dark black hole, was where my strange noise was coming from. I swallowed my fear, tossed my common sense behind me, pulled out my flash light and took my first steps into that dark other world.

What I found when I flashed my lights over the walls made me want to vomit. Orion and the guys had been looking for signs of destruction and it seems that I had hit the jack pot. Mywan little beam flashed over the walls and showed that whoever had come down this way had been bound and determined to trash everything in their path. Either that or they didn't care what they ran over in the attempt to reach something else. The darkness and destruction was bad enough, the worse thing was that the sound that had led me down here was getting even louder, and I was getting closer to the source.

It was then that I finally identified the sound. Somewhere in this awful place, something was slowly but surely dripping into what must have been, by the sound of it, a very large puddle.

Suddenly I knew what I would find at the end of that God awful, long, dark, hallway. I did my best to prepare myself, as I spotted the end of the hall and another door off to one side. Still as I rounded the corner there was nothing that could have prepared me for what I saw. There was also nothing that could have silenced the scream that tore its way out of my throat.

Back at the main room Orion heard my scream and finally noticed the panel and the darkness beyond.

"STAY HERE!" He ordered.

He then proceeded to knock the panel out of the way and come charging down the hallway to find me. What he found was my shadow out lined in my own dropped flashlight beam as I hunkered down on the floor and hid my eyes from what I had found.

"ANGEL!" He made his way over to me, "What….?"

He trailed off as he finally got a good look at what had sent me into screaming fits and left me unable to look. He scooped me up with one hand and switched on his comlink.

"TOPSIPN, TWIN TWIST!" He almost yelled into the thing, "I need the two of you got get down here RIGHT NOW! Whirl, you stay up there and keep Magnus in the main room!"

Three "Yes Sir's" came though the link and in a few moments the two that had been called were down there.

"Oh Primus," Was all that Topspin managed.

"Don't waste time." Orion ordered, "Just do what you have to, but be as careful as you possibly can."

That was when the whole thing got screwed. I heard a loud thud and a yell came from the main room and then the sound of someone charging down the hallway. Orion promptly stepped out of the last room and into Magnus' way.

"You don't need to go in there," He tried.

"If you don't get out of my way Prime, then they are going to be picking you up off the floor." Magnus then shoved past us, "NOW MOVE!"

And that was when he saw it. Saw the proof that the Decepticons had gotten there first and that they had been utterly merciless.

The young female transformer had been attacked and almost beaten to death. But rather than just kill her outright, someone had deliberately left her alive and then quite literally nailed the poor thing to the wall. Somehow clamping her slender wrists there and then leaving her to die.

Magnus shoved Topspin out of the way and quite literally tore the clamps out of the wall with his bare hands. They clattered to the floor and the poor kid finally fell forward landing in Magnus' own arms. I took one look at the expression of utter agony on Magnus' face and was convinced that it was not possible for me to feel any worse about the situation than I already did.

I was wrong and was proven so the very next moment. The girl managed to get her optics open and I could see a wave of utter joy wash over her face. She somehow managed to reach up and fling her arms around the neck of the mech that was holding her, clamping on to him in a death grip.

Managing before she lost consciousness to utter one word that cut all of us right to the bone.

She hugged him tighter and simply called him, "Daddy."


	3. Chapter 3

Notes: No real warnings for this chapter, same as basic story.Thanks. RP1

Land Of Confusion: Part3

I don't really remember the ride back to the base. All I know is that I sat there in stunned shock up until the moment that Orion told me to get down out his cab so he could transform. Even as he ran to help carry his niece into the med center, all I could do was slide down the wall and sit there in numb silence.

From the state of the room where we had found the girl, she had put up one hell of a fight. The only mech fluid that had come from her was what was right next to her near the wall. The rest of that mess had come from who ever had gone after her. It was a pretty safe bet that out there somewhere at the Decepticon base, someone was very sore. Still despite the fact that she had done the best she could to defend herself and take her attacker with her, the facts still remained what they were. Someone out there had deliberately left this poor kid to bleed to death out of pure spite. Just the thought of that cut me right down to my own soul.

But to be perfectly honest the real reason I sat there in that state of shock wasn't the horror that I felt, at least not the horror I felt over what the Decepticons had done. No, what kept me glued there to the floor was the shame and horror I was feeling at my own emotions. Even as I had screamed in horror when I found the girl there, even though I already knew that it wasn't the one I was looking for thanks to Kup, there was still a part of me that was relieved.

Somewhere inside there was a part of me that had looked at that poor child and had thought "Oh thank God, it's not him."

There was also something else. From the dreams I had in my mind I knew that the 'Cons most likely knew what the person I was searching for looked like. Still they had been willing to bleed this innocent girl that had nothing to do with the situation other than being a member of the Autobot youth. If they had done this to someone who wasn't the next Prime in any shape, form, or fashion, what would they do to him if they managed to find him first?

Which brought that dark chain of thoughts I was having as I sat on that cold floor back to something else, just how had they managed to get to her fist? According to Kup and Magnus they had stuck every single redundant system they could think of in there to make sure that no one could track it. They had more than enough fail-safes to keep this from happening. I was at a complete and utter loss over it, except for the fact that for some reason I wanted to blame myself.

I probably would have sat there all night in the dark entryway to the base, leaning up against that wall. In fact I know I would have it someone hadn't come to find me.

I saw the door to the rest of the base swish open and Orion's silhouette looked in at me.

"There you are Hero," He told me.

I blinked up at him, his face still obscured by the shadows of the bay. Even if I could have seen his face I think his meaning would still have been completely and utterly lost on me.

"huh?" I asked ineloquently.

"What?" His voice changed immediately from one teasing me to a tone of concern, "What's the matter?"

"Why did you just call me that?" I demanded.

"What?"

"Hero," I looked up at him again, "Why did you just call me that?"

"Because you are!" Now he seemed stunned.

"I'm not," I maintained.

"All I could do when I found her was scream," I trailed off as I felt tears well up, "and on some level…."

I couldn't finish, I couldn't bring myself to tell my husband I had been capable of such a horrid, selfish thought.

"On some level you were relieved because this wasn't the person you came looking for right?" He finished for me.

I nodded to him as the tears started and buried my head in my arms, wanting nothing more at that moment than to just curl up and die from shame.

"First off," he sat down next to me in the entry way, "No one is going to fault you for that. Saving him is what you came here to do."

"But…"I tried.

"But nothing," he continued, "You came here to save him, but in the process you managed to find Arcee before she died too. If you hadn't gone off like that, if you hadn't been there to scream, there's a good chance we would never have found her. She would have died."

"That doesn't make me a hero," I told him softly.

"You saved my daughter," His voice suddenly changed, "that makes you a hero to me."

I looked up at him in the dark and suddenly it hit me full force, I wasn't talking to Orion. The lights suddenly snapped on to reveal the face of the person I had been talking to was indeed Magnus. I just stared at him as he grinned down at me from behind his own mask.

"Gotcha," he teased.

Orion grinned at me from the light switch.

"I'm sorry, my love," he came over to the two of us, "but I thought that it was Magnus' place to tell you how he felt."

"I am sorry for the trick," Magnus apologized, "but He guessed how you must have been feeling. So I talked him into this, into letting me be the one to come and thank you for saving my baby girl. None of us saw or heard the things you did, so yes girl, you really are a hero."

"I just…" I started to protest again.

Orion shook his head and came over to me scooping me up in the process.

"Now don't start," He warned, "Right now we have to go and get some rest so we can be ready for the next signal."

"I just hope no one intercepts this one," I sighed.

Magnus came over to us and did is best to reassure me, "Kup says that there's no way that they could have picked up on it. The transmission was foolproof."

"Maybe they tracked her from Alpha Trion's base," I offered.

"They are doing something," Orion shook his head, "I just don't know what. We are going to have to find out soon though, and put a stop to it."

As it turned out, we didn't have to wait that long to see what the Decepticons were up to. While we were there waiting though, Orion kept trying to get me to go and get some sleep. I knew he was right and that I did need some, still I couldn't bring myself to go back to my rooms. So I wound up getting my sleeping bag and finding a corner of the command center to crash in.

I was asleep almost the moment my head hit the pillow and was out for what to me felt like about five minutes. In truth it was about 4 hours or so, still to me it zoomed by.

What woke me up was the next signal beacon going off. I snapped awake and sat there looking numbly at the screen for a few seconds while everyone else broke into action. This time they managed to get ready to go twice as fast as they did they first time, myself included. Still once again that feeling of complete dread lodged itself right at the end of my spine and refused to let go.

To make matters worse, I was not only creeped out by this feeling but I was also terrified that we wouldn't make it to the second beacon in time. The main issue with this was that there were people out there who were just as dedicated as us to making sure these missions had the opposite outcomes.

What happened?

Well I suppose anyone would flip when the off ramp you were about to get onto stood up and started snarling at you. For some strange reason though it really got to me at that point, seeing this strange THING loom up out of the night at us.

Up until I had been kidnapped I had never really been much for screaming. As I have said before it seemed to me like a completely useless response to danger. Still I took one look at that thing towering over us and let loose with a caterwaul that would have shattered glass had there been any actual glass around. Over the comlinks I could hear Magnus yelling at the top of his vocals for every one to back up and get off the thing ASAP. Needless to say, all of the convoy was more than happy to oblige.

What it turned out to be was a mobile battle platform that someone had gotten the bright idea to stick a spark into and make it sentient. It had then proceeded to plant its self right smack in the middle of the only possible route we could take to go and rescue the person who had set off the last beacon.

"TRYPTICON SMASH!" It snarled and then proceeded to turn its gaze down and begin methodically blasting all of us in its sights to bits.

I jumped down from Orion's cab and dove for cover as he transformed, then followed suit.

"What the hell is that thing?" I screamed.

"Whatever it is," I heard Ultra Magnus call to us, "Its right smack in the middle of where we need to go."

"There's no way to get past it?" Orion yelled back.

"Not unless you're packing something else that size!" Topspin got out.

All I could really do at this point was to watch. The thing, Trypticon, had to be the size of the Empire state building. It was that big, big enough to make the Autobots look like ants by comparison. Not to mention that fact that it seemed to be really, really ticked off.

I was about to try and think of something, anything that we could do to get rid of it or at least distract it, when all of a sudden it just stopped. It stopped blasting, stopped stomping around us, and just froze. It froze, cocked its head to one side like it was listening to something and then was just gone. It transformed, turned away from us and sped off into the distance like none of us mattered any more.

"What happened?" I asked, suddenly very loud in the intense quiet.

"It just… stopped," Whirl replied.

"WHY did it just stop?" Twin Twist asked, "It could have squashed us flat."

I ran my brain over that one for a few seconds and then was literally almost floored when what had really happened here plowed into me.

"TRANSFORM!" I yelled up to Orion.

"What?" He looked down at me in shock, "Why?"

"NOW Please!" I was almost frantic, "We have to go!"

"Wh…Oh Primus," It finally hit him and he transformed immediately.

As I clambered up in him and we sped off it finally dawned on all of the rest of them what had happened. Why attack us but not kill us? Why not take the chance to wipe us all out with this one leviathan? Why waste time and resources just to make us take longer to get to where we were going?

That was the point. We were never the target to begin with. The whole thing had been set up to keep us occupied for a few crucial moments. Moments that could mean the difference between life and death for someone. We had just fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. I was just praying that as we sped off, this blunder wouldn't cost yet another child their innocence or even worse, their life.


	4. Chapter 4

Land of Confusion: Part 4

So much for prayers being answered.

We got to the place where the last of the beacons had come from only to find the place utterly decimated. Where there had once been a blast door now all that we found was a huge empty black hole.

I didn't want to go down there and find what I knew must be at the end of that emptiness. I knew in my heart and soul what we would find when we got there. Still I had to do just that. Only I would be able to tell if any of these children that might be down there happened to be the one I had seen in my dreams. So, facing no other choice I swallowed a mouth full of bile and headed in.

I really don't know what to say to describe what we found down there. It looked like a scene run away from that horror movie "Saw". The only difference was that if you got too spooked by the movie you could always turn it off. This however, was painfully real.

Some….thing lay there in the main room in a pool of its own energon and just stared at us hollowly with huge green eyes. I couldn't tell if the poor thing was alive or dead but it had been gone over and just like Arcee, left to die. Someone or something had taken this monster with teeth that would make a Komodo dragon drool with envy and had for lack of better terms, reverse "bear trapped" it. Jaws that looked like they could have split titanium gapped back on them selves so far that it hurt just to look at it. The stump of what might have been the poor thing's tail was still attached to its body but the main part was missing. I looked up and realized the thing embedded in the wall not to far off could only have been the other end of the poor critter's appendage.

That was when we got another shock. IT wasn't dead. In fact when we started moving around more the thing's eyes flashed on and it looked up at Orion and the rest of us in an almost pleading manner. When it finished giving us half dead puppy dog look it started doing its best to try and crawl in the direction of the couch. So I left the others too look after him and made my way to go and investigate. This time however, Orion had no intention of letting me wander off on my own.

"Where do you think your going?" he asked.

"To see what that poor thing wanted over here so bad," I motioned back to where the rest of us were busy looking after it, "Something pretty important must be over here."

"I see" He motioned, "alright then, let's go and see what's there."

I shook my head up at him but gave in and let him come with me as I made my way over to look at what was there. It didn't really look all that out of the ordinary to me. It was just a plain old couch like the ones that populated various lounges in the Ark. Still I had the feeling that there was more to it than just what we were seeing. So of course that meant we had to take a closer look.

"Push this thing out from the wall for me," I motioned, "I want to take a look at the back."

He nodded and grabbed the side of the couch and started shoving. That was when we heard it, though what it was didn't really make that much sense to me until I stopped and listened.

"Stop a second," I told him.

"What's…." he began.

"Shhhhh!" I waved up at him, "Listen."

"I don't hear anything," Orion shook his head.

I stood there for a second listening my self and the sound didn't repeat it self for me or for Orion.

"I know I heard something," I muttered.

I received a large shrug and he bent down and resumed pushing on the couch to get it away from the wall. That's when I heard it again, this time I was sure that I wasn't hearing things and it wasn't my imagination.

"Okay that's not my imagination," I told him.

I could see him open his mouth under his mask to reply when he suddenly heard it too. What it was seemed to be screams coming from inside the couch, screams that started up every single time Orion grabbed hold of it and tried to get it away from the wall.

"I heard it that time too," he confirmed, "Lets get this thing out all the way and see what exactly is in there."

What we found when we got it all the way from the wall was a large hole that ha been ripped in the back of the couch. It hung there black and gaping, just daring any fool to stick their hand in the thing.

"Great," I sighed, "Yet another deep dark hole."

I pulled out my flash light and flicked it on scanning around the interior of a couch the size of my den back home. At first there was nothing in there to find, it just looked like the inside of a couch. But I knew what I had heard and there had to be something in there causing that sound. So I swept the light over the inside one more time and that's when I noticed it. Part of the stuffing looked like he had been displaced and then shoved back down.

"Hold this," I told Orion and handed him my tiny flash light.

I wiggled closer to the pile of fluff and finally pulled it away, only to be rewarded with a screech that put the one's I had been letting out lately to complete and utter shame. The only difference was the note of childhood, or young teen panic I could detect in the voice.

"CLAM DOWN!" I demanded, "I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The screaming stopped and I took a look at what I had found hidden in the couch. What I had found turned out to be two of the tiniest Cybertronians that I had ever laid eyes on. They were just barely bigger than me and would have made even Bumblebee look huge.

The girl of the pair was the one that had been screaming and was the only one that was still conscious. She looked terrified and was in the process of doing her best to cling to the male transformer that had been hidden in there with her.

I opened my mouth to say something but all I could really do at that point was hold out my hand and gape like a moron. The girl for a second seemed like she might actually be about to take it and then snatched her hand back and shook her head violently.

"DON'T," she begged me on the verge of tears, "Don't hurt my brother and Gnaw any more!"

Every single one of us froze as she did her best to sink further into the couch and get away from people that she didn't know and for that matter may very well have been the ones that sentthe people who hurt her.

"Please don't hurt my brother and Gnaw any more! We didn't do any thing wrong!" She pleaded.

She pretty plainly didn't know the difference between Autobots and Decepticons and at this point probably didn't care. All she really wanted right then was for the people she cared about to be safe.

Orion held out his hands and made to move closer to her, "Hey we aren't here to hurt any one, we came to help you."

"NO!" she screeched as she tried to get even further back, "Your Lying! All grown ups ever do is LIE!"

It was pretty plain that she wasn't going to come with anyone right then that she didn't trust. Neither was she going to let go of her brother so that we could get a look at him and make sure that he was okay. So that left me with the only option of trying to convince this poor kid that I didn't even know that we weren't the ones who had attacked them. To her I'm sure all adults were alike right then, people who had promised to protect her and had failed. Failed and left scars that might never heal.

"Just calm down honey," I told her as I moved closer, "We don't want to hurt you, really. We came to find you when you set off your signal. We're Autobots…well they are."

She blinked at me a couple of times as if trying to decide weather this was yet an other lie or that she could really trust this strange, squishy little thing that was doing its level best to coax her out of her safe place. She looked from her brother to me and then to Orion.

"Will you help my brother?" She looked up at him, "He hit his head. Then…Then Gnaw hid us in here from the bad people…He hasn't moved since he hit his head… P-please help him."

"I promise," Orion told her softly, "I promise we will help him and your friend Gnaw."

He moved closer to her and she maintained her death grip on her brother for a few more seconds and then finally let him go into Orion's hands. I helped her out of her hiding place and around to the front of the couch as her brother was carried off. We were about to head out when it happened. The child of war, one of the millions of innocents that had to grow up too soon because of this, the kid that had managed to keep her mouth shut and her brother safe through an attack that took down something like this Gnaw character, turned out to be just a child after all. She took one look around the devastated room and all of mask that she had been wearing crumbled. She suddenly collapsed at my feet and started crying so hard that her whole body shook.

"Hey!" I put my arms around her, "its okay honey. You're safe now."

She grabbed onto me and held on for dear life, so hard that I knew I was going to have some lovely bruises when this was all over. Still I couldn't bring myself to push the poor thing away when she needed someone so badly.

So I wound up in the back of Orion's trailer trying to keep her as calm as possible as we rode back to base. Eventually she finally calmed down enough and managed to do some talking. During the course of this conversation I finally managed to get the names of her and her brother out of her.

"So?" I asked.

She didn't seem like she was going to answer me at first and I just sat there wondering if I were just talking to my self and this poor thing was so far gone that she might never be coming back. It suffices to say that I was a little surprised when she finally did answer.

"Wheeler," she got out, "My name is Wheeler. My brother is Wheelie and our friend is Gnaw."

I shook my head at her, "It's very nice to meet you Wheeler." I suddenly sobered up as the weight of what had happened suddenly crashing back down on my shoulders.

"I'm Sorry," I shook my own head, "I'm sorry that we didn't get to you in time. But not all grown ups are like the ones that hurt you, most of them are pretty good people."

She looked me over for a second thoughtfully.

"Are you a grown up?" She asked.

"Yes," I nodded.

"But…" she trailed off.

"What?" I looked myself over; it was pretty easy to tell that I wasn't a kid any more.

"But you're not big," she finished, "How can you be a grown up?"

I had to smile at that despite the circumstances, this kid was just plain cute.

"This is as big as we get where I come from honey."

"Where you come from?" She echoed.

"My world," I nodded, "Earth."

"You're…"she thought about it for a second, "you're an alien grown up?"

Now I was doing my best to not laugh, that comment sent some hilarious mental images through my mind. Still I managed to restrain myself and nodded at her again.

"You could put it that way Wheeler." I agreed

She got quiet again and continued to study me some more, finally talking again when she had come to conclusion.

"You're not like other grown ups," She informed me matter of factly, "you don't yell. You don't think I'm stupid 'cus I'm NOT a grown up."

I wanted to bust out crying over that one, this war orphan, a child of the ruins that had nothing left to trust in had chosen to put her trust in me.

"Well I don't know what to tell you Wheeler, Just that I wouldn't want to be talked to that way, so I wont talk to anyone that way."

She finally nodded and smiled, as if she had come to a decision.

"I like you," She told me simply.

I still felt like bawling but I managed to keep it under control, "Thank you Wheeler. I just wish that I could have gotten there in time to keep you from having to go through all of this. I wish I could have stopped them from hurting you."

Suddenly she got deadly serious and looked me right in the eyes, coming over to put her hands on my shoulders.

"I won't tell this to the other grown ups," She said softly, "but I have to tell someone. I heard when I was hiding that they are going to come after all of us. They are going to come after us ALL!"

I didn't, hadn't had the time, to feel any emotions this time except utter shock over what I had seen. When those words came out of that girl's mouth though, I could feel the chills run down my spine.

It was no longer just about finding and saving the next Prime. These people were child killers and sociopaths with no concept of mercy.

They had to be stopped.


	5. Chapter 5

Land of Confusion: Part 5

I remember once reading a book called "Small Sacrifices". It was about someone that callously took the lives of three innocent children for their own selfish reasons. The one line of the book the stuck in my mind more than anything else at the time was the description of what the author thought the looks on the children's faces must have been that night.

Looks of "Why us?" and "Why didn't the adults protect us?" Most of all a look of "What did we do to deserve THIS?"

That was the look I saw in the eyes of that transformer child as we carried her, her sibling and their protector Gnaw back to the base. It was something that was going to haunt me for a long time. It was something that also provoked feelings in me similar to what the prosecutor in the case in the novel had felt. A commitment to find the person who did this to them, a vow that no matter what happened in the future this person that had done this would be brought to justice. No matter what had to be done.

This was all that was running through my head the next morning as I found myself leading that poor kid down to the med bay to see her brother and friends. Leading her down there to prove to her that, yes we were going to help her.

The kid was still a good head taller than me and the hand that had mine caught in its death grip was still that of a Cybertronian, powerful and huge. Still it was the hand of a kid that needed someone to be there for them and despite the fact that I thought I was probably going to have bruises at the very least I knew that I couldn't let go.

She kept hold of me right up until the moment that the door to the med bay swooshed open and revealed the ones that were already in there. Wheeler stood there for a second looking around like she had no idea what to do or who to look for when the two of us heard a conversation coming from off to the left.

"Don't you DARE tell me that I'm gonna stay out of this!" A female voice all but snarled.

"Listen," This voice I recognized as Ultra Magnus, "You almost DIED."

"It's because of that, I owe those Decepticreeps some payback Daddy," She told him, "And as soon as I can hold a blaster again I have every intention of giving it to them."

We rounded the corner and found a slightly exasperated Magnus sitting next to his daughter's bed. She was awake and still was the equivalent of black and blue all over. She was however, very lucid and was evidently telling her father what was what as we came up to them. When she caught sight of the movement of the two of us walking in to the med bay she waved and motioned us over.

Wheeler took one look at the older girl, and broke loose from me.

"ARCEE!" She squealed at the top of her vocals.

I stood there and watched as the kid first ran over and hugged the older girl eliciting an interesting set of noises from Arcee. Still the older girl seemed happy that the kid was okay and made sure that the kid knew that she was going to be alright to.

Wheeler then proceeded over to her brother and to Gnaw. Wheelie was fine, other than a nice fat concussion and he was happy. The two of them immodestly began trying to work up a plot to escape the med bay only to receive a very loudly growled rebuke from the bed next to them. Poor Gnaw was literally in traction and didn't appreciate the idea of the kids taking off and leaving him at the base. Wheeler immediately apologized and put her arms around Gnaw, hugging the poor guy as best she could.

I have to admit I was happy to see them if not well and recovered at least on the way. Still there was the fact that twice now somehow the Decepticons had managed to find out where we were going and get there first. If it hadn't been for Gnaw and his hiding these little twins the chances were that they would have wound up just as bad as Arcee. In fact, considering that they were half her size they probably would have done a whole lot worse to them.

Once I was sure that Wheeler was settled in with her brother and Gnaw I moved off into the rest of the base. To tell the truth I was now beyond pissed. I was in a state of mind where I was promising not just the kids, but myself as well that the ones that did this would be found somehow and that I would teach them just what it meant to be on the receiving end of revenge. It was probably the stupidest state of mind that I could have been in at the time. Still that's what I was thinking and rationality wasn't coming into play at all here. Any detachment I might have felt had gone out the window a very long time ago. I was emotionally invested in making sure now that not only the kid who was the next Prime made it through this, but that all the kids who were out there hiding got home safe and sound. So being in that mental state meant that I was prepared to go and do something utterly and completely foolish.

While our base was fairly well hidden out in the middle of no where, the Cons base was right smack in the middle of the nearest city and practically screamed "BAD GUYS HIDE OUT". Not to mention the fact that it was so huge you could have stuck the whole city of Lexington in one corner of the place and lost it for the rest of time. That it was so big and I was so tiny by comparison was probably the only advantage I had at the time. This of course leads me back to the utterly and completely foolish thing that I did.

I snuck off from the Autobots base and went to do a bit of Recon.

I know, I know, HOW right?

Well if the guys at the base shouldn't leave human sized scooters around the place where I can get a hold of them, if they really don't want a nutcase like me to use them.

Twenty minutes later I had sneaked my way into the base and was in the process of making my way through the ventilation systems. They didn't have any lights in there, but the fact was I had prepared for just about everything on this trip and right then I was sporting the night vision goggles I had laid a flat hundred out to get. Truth is, I never thought I'd get a chance to use them. Funny how things work out, isn't it.

I thought that finding the command center of their base would be a problem. I should have known that Megatron and his crew have no concept of how to be subtle. I was about 1000 feet into the main air shaft when I heard the yelling.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS NOT WORKING?"

Yep, that was definitely Megatron. A few more feet and I was looking down through some kind of mesh at him and a few more of his people in some kind of monitoring room. He had is arms crossed and was breathing down Starscream's neck as the seeker sat, pounded on a keyboard and glared at the screen.

"Exactly what I SAID Megatron," He snarled, "Either the link is fried, or something is interfering with it. All I'm getting is green static!"

"Well, do something!"

"Unfortunately I cant," The red plane hissed back, "We're just going to have to wait."

This was followed by several loud curse words compliments of Megatron, which I made note of as I hunkered down in my spot and continued to spy. He finally clamed down some and turned away from the screen.

"Over all however, I would say that this has gone surprisingly well," The silver tyrant commented.

"Indeed," I could almost hear Starscream smile, "Our little toy has done its job admirably. Still I have to wonder…"

"Wonder what?" a cold voice asked from the door.

I looked over to where it came from and in walked the one eyed wonder Shockwave, Looking as charming and handsome as ever I might add, yeah right.

"I have to wonder if this much brutality is really called for. We were initially going after the Matrix Heir. How did we become involved in killing off all of the Autobot youth?"

"It is the most logical move Starscream," Shockwave sniffed, "We rid ourselves of the Heir as well as the next generation of Autobots. We also demoralize their parents and strike a huge blow for our cause. Loosing their children will cause them to become unfocused, we will have the edge."

"Flawlessly logical," Megatron agreed.

"Really," Starscream commented, "Did it ever occur to you that it might have the opposite effect? Just as your stupid plan to kidnap the humanfemales did?"

Megatron suddenly whirled on the Red and white seeker and almost literally growled in his face.

"That plan was FLAWLESS," He told him, "If you and the rest hadn't been so incompetent…!"

"Did you just call ME incompetent?" Starscream demanded.

"Well you DID get taken down by a MINI-bot," Shockwave commented.

"A mini-bot with an alt-mode designed to be a tank-killer," Screams shot back.

"Just an observation," Shockwave commented idly. "But never mind that. Our next priority is to move on the next signal."

Starscream opened his mouth to make a comment but held his vocals and observations to himself for the moment. As for me, that was all I needed to see and hear. I took a lull in their discussion as my cue to leave and began to make a bee-line for where I had left my scooter outside of their base. There was only one tiny, little problem.

As I started to sneak away I didn't notice that some of my gear had gotten caught on that dumb grate. I stood up to sneak off and was rewarded with an ear splitting screech as the stuff bent back and clung to me. It was some kind of trap and I had fallen right in to it.

"What in the…?" Starscream looked up at the grate and gapped.

Megatron on the other hand had his own ideas about what needed to be done.

"GET HER!" He yelled at the top of his vocals.

Shockwave lunged at me to try and grab me as Starscream just sat there for some strange reason looking from me, to the screen and back again. I got myself loose from the mesh finally and didn't wait to see what happened. I made it far enough away in the air shaft to not be grabbed just as Shockwave's hand burst through and started clawing at me.

Then I took off down the shaft running as hard as I could manage to get back to my scooter. I suddenly realized how dumb this was and what Orion was probably going to do to me for putting myself in this mess, still I had some information that could be used and I was just a bit smug over that.

I don't know how or why but I managed to make it back to my transport before any of them made it out of the base. Another twenty minutes later I was back at the Autobot base and just as I predicted there was a very pissed Autobot leader standing there waiting for me.

"Are you out of your mind?" he demanded.

"Now how do you know what I did?" I shot back.

"Because," Kup piped up behind him from the monitor, "Every single con that was back in the city has been scrambled out to look for you."

I sighed and knew that no amount of explanation would ever be enough in this case. But I had done what I felt needed to be done even though I knew what I would get when I made it home.

"Okay look," I held out my arms in my own exasperation, "I know it was stupid and I know I could have been killed. I walked right into a trap and I DID almost get caught. I was wrong and I shouldn't have done it."

"You are so right there," Orion interrupted.

"I know," I calmed down considerably, "but I did find something out that was worth it."

"Really?"

"Yes really," I shot back, "I found out how they have beaten us to all of the kids locations so far."

That one shut them all up for a good five seconds. Still I could tell Orion was just plain mad. The fact was he didn't think that I should have done this plain and simple. Despite the fact that I was a strong, and fast, and as good of a shot as I was, he still maintained that I was a human and they were Transformers. I was grossly outmatched.

This had been a bone of contention between the two of us for a very long time. However I didn't think that this was the time or the place to be having the same old argument so I just let it go.

"Look," I looked up at him honestly, "I know it was foolish. You're the commanding officer here so you can toss my butt in the brig if you want to. But just let me tell you what I found out first, okay?"

He closed his eyes and let out a breath then looked back down at me.

"This had better be as important as you think it is," He said flatly.

"Thank you," I told him, "Okay then. This is what I found out…"

I finally finished explaining to them all that I had found out. Once I had made my point Orion had called in Ultra Magnus and all the rest of them telling them what I knew and sending them all off to turn the place inside out and look for what ever it was they were using to spy on us.

That left the two of us alone to talk to each other.

"I really am sorry babe." I told him.

"That doesn't change the fact that you did something utterly and completely stupid."

"I know," I looked away from him, "I don't know what else to tell you Orion. I just wanted to do something to help those poor kids."

"You are helping them Angel," He told me.

"Getting there just in time to save them isn't helping," I was about to cry for some strange reason, "That's cleaning up the mess because I wasn't fast enough to help them."

He suddenly changed his size and came over to me and put his hands on my shoulders and turned me to face him.

"Why is this getting to you so bad," He asked, "Because they are kids?"

"Yes," I told him, "I can't ever have kids of my own now. I guess I just let myself get too attached to these."

I sighed and looked away, "That's silly isn't it? I don't even know them."

"It isn't silly," He put his arms around me and pulled me closer to him, "It's just a part of being the type of person that you are. That's a quality that makes me sure that you were the right person to fall in love with."

I smiled against him for a second just enjoying being in the arms of the man that I cared so much for. Then of course reality had to force its self on to us yet again as the third tracking beacon choose that moment to go off.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Notes: Hi there, sorry for the long lay over. Work is consuming, class too. ANY HOW.. A warning on this new chapter. Its got a pretty high rateing over all and even though the story has teen I'm also putting a warning here. There is a quite a bit of violence in this, for the sake of the story. So this is a T+ or pg-13.

Thanks RP1

Legal stuff: Dont own the TF's, Don't own the song. For FUN only!

Land Of Confusion: Part 6

While we were gathering our wits getting ready to move out and go and find this newest signal, it seemed that some of the people who had sent the stupid thing were in the process of holding a war council of their own.

"I TOLD you this was a bad idea!"

Despite the fact that they had been explicitly told, and given specific orders to not contact the base or one another, the three remaining kids had gone and done just that. They had blatantly broken protocol and gotten together to see if any of the things that the others had heard via the transmission net were true. Now all of them seemed to be regretting it.

"You have said that SIX times already Springer," Hotrod growled, "I get the point already. It was a bad idea okay?"

Springer opened his mouth to say something back to that, only to suddenly look up and pull the other two along with himself back behind cover. One of them had indeed set off their beacon and now there were two Decepticons out there looking for him.

"Great," Springer finally managed, "So now what do we do?"

"I haven't got a clue," Hotrod finally admitted.

"Whatdowedo?Whatdowedo?" Blurr finally chimed in from the back of the group,"Everywherewegoeverytimewelookupeverytimeweturnacornertheretheyare!"

Yes by the way, he really DOES talk like that, and would have kept going except at that moment he was muffled by Springer.

"We don't have any idea how they keep managing to track it and find the signal each time, so the main problem right now is how do we get out of THIS mess?"

Hotrod let out a long sigh and shook his head, "all I can think of to do at this point is to split back up and try to loose them."

"Great, that's really inspired Roddy," Springer griped, "Fine then YOU two split up."

"Whataboutyou?" Blurr demanded.

"Someone's got to draw these goons off," Springer shot back.

Hotrod opened his mouth to tell him that there was no way he was going to let him do that to begin with but by that point Springer had already taken off leaving his two friends staring after him. Hotrod just glared for a second or two more and then did the only thing that he could think of.

"Get going Blurr!" and proceeded to give the other kid a shove in the opposite direction.

"BUT…!"

"No buts motormouth!" Hotrod called back, "We'll meet up later!"

That was probably the best thing they could have done right then, split up and stay on the move. However there was just one small problem with that. Blurr, who normally was apparently a perpetual motion device, was probably for the first time in his life, scared stiff. Literally.

All he could do when he realized that Springer was gone off to distract the Cons and Hotrod had taken off so that there would be one less target for them to follow, was freeze. He apparently is one of those people that hates to be alone, social. To wit, all of this had taken a bigger toll on him than it had on some of the heartier ones. So he just stood there for about five minutes trying to get his bearings and choose what to do next.

Unfortunately that was all the time that one of the searching Decepticons needed to find him.

Astrotrain was making poor Springer's life a living hell about ten klicks away, Blitzwing on the other hand walked up behind Blurr and got an evil smile plastered on his face.

"Well well, IF it ain't the lil' Blabbermouth."

"Is THAT the best you can do?" Springer called from where he was dodging yet another one of Astrotrain's volleys.

"Keep being smug you little Autobrat!" Astrotrain snarled, "When I get my hands on you you're going down just like that Pink Slut!"

If there as anything that called Springer up short and made him falter, loose his cool, it was that. He quite literally stopped in mid-air and transformed. He dropped down to the ground and stared at the other transformer.

"What did you just say?" he demanded.

And now Astrotrain knew that he had the younger Mech in a position that he would never manage to get him into again. He had shocked him right down to his spark and all it would take as a little bit more to push him over the edge.

"You heard me brat," Astrotrain told him gleefully as he transformed, "She went down SO easy too. Just like the piece of Autobot trash that she was."

Springer stared at him for a second and began shaking. The kid had no way of knowing that we had made it to Arcee in time, and that she while very sore, was very much alive and at that moment plotting her revenge. No, all Springer could do right then was to assume the worst. All he could do was believe what the Decepticon was telling him. Still he tried to deny it, tried to somehow make his tormentor tell him that it was just a lie.

"Arcee…you mean… she's…" He stammered.

"Probably kid," Astrotrain grinned evilly, "I quite literally nailed her ass to the wall."

And that was all poor Springer could have been expected to take. He just literally stopped all motion for about five seconds and then some where in there someone flipped the pissed switch to "on". The next thing Astrotrain knew was that Springer was headed right at him and that sword of his looked anything but dull.

In the mean time poor Blurr was getting the raw end of his deal. Unlike Springer, Blurr hadn't managed to find any deep motivation for fighting back and had literally been shocked still the moment that the triple changer had pounced on him. The result being that he was now on the receiving end of everything that Blitzwing could manage, in all of his sadistic glee to dish out.

Right then he had bashed up both of his legs to the point where if he had managed to get out of the enthusiastic head lock he was in, there was no way that he was going to be going anywhere any time soon. Blurr was clawing at the arm around his neck with his free one while his other one was being twisted behind his back so hard that you could literally hear the metal he was made of start creaking.

"You know you little loudmouthed brat," Blitzwing taunted, "I always wondered why someone didn't off you before now. Always thought that it was because you were too fast."

He paused and tightened his grip on Blurr's arm, grinning very vilely. This was illustrated by the fact that right then the poor kid who had somehow managed to stay quiet long past the point when any sane person would have been screaming bloody murder, just couldn't keep silent any longer.

Blitzwing waited until he finally finished and then leaned down to speak to him again, intent on rubbing it in as much as he could.

"You wanna know the real truth squawkbox?" He grinned even more, " Every one out there, even your so called friends feels sorry for you. That's why you haven't ever been put in the ground where you belong you little menace, Pity."

He stopped and twisted even more.

"To bad I don't have any."

The poor kid let out yet another cry of agony as his abused limb finally gave way and he sagged against his captor. Blitzwing was about to let go and grab his other arm when he finally realized that he wasn't alone any longer.

When he also realized that it was Orion's Ion rifle pressed against the back of his head I think he came as close as its possible for a transformer to come to crapping his pants.

"I would take my hands off of him if I were you," Orion growled.

"Prime?" The Decepticon in question squeaked.

From my perch on his shoulder I heard Orion cock his rifle in response to this and watched as Blitzwing very slowly let go of Blurr and raised his hands up. He managed to mutter something about not getting paid enough for this, While Orion lowered his gun and marched forward to yank his arms down and snap a pair of cuffs on him.

While we were doing that every one that we had brought with us that knew any thing about looking after injuries descended on Blurr. On his part, Blurr was at that point just plain old happy to be alive. This left Orion and my self to find out just what had happened and head off to find out just what the heck was going on.

What was going on was that Springer had decided that he was going to kill Astrotrain, plain and simple. The green kid hadn't managed to set off his beacon but considering the circumstances of what was going on, we really didn't need it to find him.

We got there in time to miss what Astrotrain had said to him, but just in time to see the effect that it had on poor Springer. We stood there and watched as he quite literally pile-drove himself in to the Decepticon he was fighting and had very literally lost himself to his rage. He had literally become little more than a killing machine, a true automaton. Unfortunately in the long run this wasn't going to give him the advantage that he needed to beat the bigger Mech. It wasn't going to be enough to save him.

He may have managed to knock the Con down but in the process he had lost sight of everything and had gotten careless. When he had finished with his hand to hand weapon, his sword, he had tossed it to one side and continued to go after Astrotrain with his artillery. Astrotrain on the other hand had noticed this, and planned on using it to his advantage in anyway possible. So when Springer pulled back for another charge, his opponent was ready for him and waiting.

The kid was winded and should have known when to back down, and indeed some of the things that Orion and I were shouting to try and reach him seemed to have some kind of effect. He seemed to at the very least slow down a bit and stop to consider if this was what needed to be done. Apparently though, the ones who were out there hunting these people knew more about what they were doing than I had given them credit for.

Astrotrain stood up and managed to brace him self, then grinned and gave Springer the taunt that was going to seal his doom.

"What's the matter brat?" He grinned, "Lil pink slut not worth it to ya?"

I saw the reason leave Springer's eyes and something else entirely take over in its place. He did then, the only thing that to him he could have done. He screamed at the top of his vocals and charged down on Astrotrain. Only to realize what was going on the moment it was too late to stop it. By that point there was nothing that either I or Orion could have done to stop the one swift movement that impaled Springer on his own blade.

Astrotrain grinned gleefully and whirled to the nearest wall managing to pin Springer there like an insect in a display case. The Decepticon triple changer leaned in and grinned more.

"Just like with your little girl friend huh Springer?" he gave the sword in the other Mech a nasty twist and smiled more, "How about I finish this and send you to meet her brat?"

Springer just stood there for a second as stream of bright energon began to course out of one side of his mouth and stared, not at Astrotrain but right behind him. He then proceeded to turn to his attacker and smile.

"Look behind you Slagwad," he got out, knowing that he would ultimately have the last laugh.

"Waddya mean look…" that was all he managed to get out.

The reason being was that he had in fact looked behind him and found himself looking down the business end of Orion's Ion Rifle.

I grinned menacingly down at him and smiled, "Hi there."

Yet again another of Megatron's stooges almost crapped his pants and allowed himself to be taken into custody rather than face an enraged Prime and "His Human".

Magnus and the wreckers showed up and began to peel poor Springer off the wall and led the mortified Astrotrain away to the lock-up. So now we had two more injured, but we also had the two people that seemed to be doing most of the attacking out of commission. I should have been happy about that. It meant that our chances of finding the last kid were that much better and that there was probably no one out there that was going to come after him. Still I was worried.

Yet again somehow these two Neanderthals had known where to go and what to look for when they got there. Either we had a spy in the base or there was something that we were missing.

No problem is unsolvable. But the answers to this one seemed to be hovering right out of my reach and left me wondering just what we were going to have to do to finally put and end to all of this.


	7. Chapter 7

Authors Notes: Well folks here ya go, hope it wasnt to long of a lay over. Hope you like it and it wasnt to predictable.

Thnx RP1

Land Of Confusion: Part 7

We made it back to the base once again burdened with the knowledge that we had yet again failed to get to the kids in time. Granted we had managed to save them, but they were still hurt and there was still the matter of how in the hell were the Decepticons finding them before we could.

I got out of the way as we moved into the base and medics descended on Springer, strapping him to a gurney and wheeling him away to the med bay. It turned out not to be as easy as it sounded. They needed to get him to where they could take care of him but keep from hurting him more in the process. Either he was in too much shock to listen to them as they tried to get him to be still or he was just ignoring them because, like I already said. They wound up strapping him down and then wheeling him away.

When I was certain that he was in good hands I went to find out if there was anything that I could do to help with poor Blurr.

He was quiet as I came up to him and Orion. From what I had heard tell of him so far that was a bad sign. It spoke volumes on his condition to those that knew him a lot better than I did.

Orion was in the process of doing his best to personally move the kid down to the med center and not make his condition any worse. For his part however Blurr just lay there with his eyes closed and his face shut down of all emotion in a way that told me a whole lot more than his body had been hurt. He should have been, according to Kup and Magnus, gabbing away as fast as he could regardless of just how badly his body had been hurt. They had seen him go through a lot worse than this and not shut up until the moment the medics slapped him with a sedative. As I followed the two of them I just had to wonder if something more than just the kid's legs had been broken.

We finally got him down there and handed yet another one over, and I couldn't help but linger there trying to make sure that he and all of the others so far were going to be okay.

Arcee was sitting up and had just learned what happened to Springer. To say that she was a lil' ticked over this would have been an understatement. She flew into such a rage that the medic came over bearing something to knock her back out so that she didn't make her condition any worse.

The Twins were doing somewhat better, Wheelie was still snoozing off his own injuries but Wheeler had found some way to amuse her self while she was "incarcerated." She was doing this by poking poor Gnaw in different places and repeatedly asking if that hurt. When she received a long loud yelp for her efforts she nodded her head knowingly.

"Yep, that hurt."

I gave the newest two one more check and then, assured that they were in the best of hands made my way back out into the base to find out what the heck had happened to Orion. It took me twenty minutes to finally realize that he was nowhere to be found and then make my way back up to the command center to see if that's where he had gotten to.

What I found when I got there was Kup looking a bit distressed and staring into one of the screens as if he were a million miles away. After a few times of yelling up at him I finally managed to get his attention. He jumped a little bit and looked down at me as if just realizing I was there. He shook him self out of what ever mull he had been in and turned his attention to me.

"What can I do for you Miss Angel," He got out.

"Have you seen Prime any where around here?" I asked.

He promptly turned bright red and looked away from me.

"Kup?"

"Oh I know where he is Miss Angel," he shook his head, "but he told me not to tell you."

"Tell me Kup," I demanded.

"Well he went to have a lil' conversation with one of our guests, the one that had a hold of Blurr," He tapped a button and a picture of the creep popped up, "A thug by the name of Blitzwing."

"Conversation?" I blinked, "that's better than what I'd be doing."

"Well Miss Angel," Kup blushed more, "I guess he kinda didn't want you to know that's what he was doing."

"He thought I'd get mad?"

Kup nodded. "He was just a bit upset."

I snorted, "Oh please, no sane person human or transformer would blame him he if went out and smeared that creep all over the tarmac. I just want to help him."

"Well Miss Angel," Kup grinned. He had apparently been under the impression that I wouldn't think much of roughing up one of the cons because of what they did to the kids. "If you want any you're gonna have to hurry, Prime was really pissed."

I shook my own head and took off out of the command center at a good clip. Only to have myself almost land flat on my face when Kup yelled for me to stop and come back.

"What?" I asked.

He suddenly looked deadly serious.

"Miss Angel, when you get done…helping…Prime, would you please come back here and talk to me. I have something that I think you need to see."

I nodded to him having no clue at the time what that might be about and took off to find out just what was happening down in the brig. What I found when I finally got down there was Orion coming out of one of the cells looking like he might have just barely stopped him self from doing something that He might have regretted, but might not have, either.

"Orion…What…" I stopped and struggled to find the right word, one that wouldn't make him feel guilty but would get me an explanation, "Happened?"

He shut off his optics for a second and then powered them back up to look solemnly down at me.

"Angel," He told me, "Please don't call me that right now."

"Wha…" I trailed off stumped.

"Please don't call me Orion right now, because I'm sorry. The only person I am right now is the leader of a war."

I stared after him as he stalked off into the base and finally got the nerve to poke my head into the cell and see just what the heck had gone on during that "conversation."

Blitzwing for all intents and purposes looked like he had made a very stupid mistake and it had cost him. The mistake being that he had been under the belief that he could go up against The Prime and take him on in a One on One fight. Now he was in the process of coming to grips with just what a stupid assumption that was.

The barrel of his tank turret was against one wall indented with what looked suspiciously like hand prints and a few other dings and dents that I couldn't identify.

His tank treads were hanging from one of the rafters in the room. From where I was standing I didn't really get a good look but they seemed to have been tied into what was a square knot. While finally Blitzwing himself lay with his feet up against the far wall with a look on his face that said he was never going to make such a stupid assumption again in his life. In fact he was going to be perfectly happy being a wuss for the rest of the time he was here at the Autobot base.

I took one look at him and shrugged. This was one of two guys that had been going around trying to murder kids both on the say so of their higher ups as well as for what ever kind of sick thrill they go out of it. Personally, I think this was still too good for him after what I had heard him say to poor Blurr.

I turned my back on him and marched out into the rest of the detention area intent on not interfering any more. Kup had something he wanted to talk to me about and I thought that it was a good time to go and see what was on the old timer's mind.

I got back up there and found him in a similar state to what he had been in when I first found him earlier. He was just sitting there, staring off into space and wondering about something or another.

"Kup?" called.

This time he didn't jump like before, he looked down at me and sighed.

"Miss Angel," He asked, "What do you know about these kids?"

"Other than that most of them are war orphans?" I blinked up at him, "Not all that much really. I mean Arcee still has family, and the Twins have Gnaw, but other than those…"

"That's pretty close," He replied, "Gnaw hooked up with the twins and has been playing big brother to them since we found him. Still he's all alone too."

"So basically none of them have anyone, 'cept Arcee." I finished.

"Most of them have no one," He corrected, "Least one of those kids has a family but never knew."

"How come?" I prompted.

"How come?" He looked sadly down at me, "Because his parents didn't want him to be used as a tool of war. Rather than have him fall into a position no one, much less a child should ever be in, they choose anonymity."

"So basically you pulled a 'Star Wars' and hid him?" I asked, "Because if he ever found out he would have tried to come to them, Right?"

The old mech nodded at me looking even sadder.

"Anything else I need to know?"

"Just that I think this is the kid that you have been looking for. In fact I know it is, and I know why."

"Mind sharing?" I tried again.

"Just watch," He handed me what looked like a DVD only slightly larger. "Trust me that will explain everything."

I opened my mouth to try and get him to say something else but I could see that no more was going to be forth coming. So the only thing I could do at that point was to go back to the rooms and play the thing on the Vid player that I had seen in there.

I slid the thing into its proper slot and sat down in the chair to see what was going to be on there. Wondering if this were some kind of joke or if this would really finally explain to me what I had seen in both my dreams, as well as the reasons for all of this insanity.

There were a few seconds of static and then a second after that the picture snapped into view. The pink and white hand pulled away from the screen and revealed an image of HER. Elita-1

I saw her adjust the camera a bit and then lean back. She thought for a second about how to begin this and finally sighed and made up her mind. I just sat there stunned as this beauty from millions of years ago began to speak to me across Space and Time.

_"If you are seeing this, then that means that I am probably already dead. That I am dead and you have come to view this to find either information about my death, or more likely my life._

_"The real truth is, I only have one great secret. That secret is the purpose of this recorded statement. I have no desire to carry this knowledge with me to my grave. So I am leaving this and hoping that someone will find it. I am also hoping that the information on here will not die with me."_

She suddenly sighed for a moment and leaned back. She looked very tired, as if the war and all that she had done, her perceived sins, were finally catching up with her.

_"The plain and simple fact is," She began again, "That this war is a war of attrition. The other fact is that it's a very real possibility that neither I nor my Lifemate will live to see the end of it. That is a knowledge that has haunted me from the moment Alpha Trion revived me. That and the fact that even though he still deeply loves me, my lifemate is no longer mine alone. That I have and will always have to share him with our people, as long as this war continues."_

_"It was that knowledge that goaded me into making a monumentally stupid and selfish choice. Granted the result of that choice is in NO WAY what so EVER a mistake, but rather it is probably the last gift that Primus will ever give me. Still it was a selfish choice, but my spark overrode my CPU. I did it anyway."_

She sighed again here, looking very near to the point of breaking down. I just watched as I waited to see what this terrible thing was that she thought she had done.

_"I did it anyway and I as well as the innocent will spend the rest of time paying for it. Still I did it, I conceived a son with my lifemate Orion, Optimus Prime."_

She paused again here and hung her head almost all the way down on her chest looking not so much like the female leader she was, but like the innocent girl she must have once been.

_"It was the most inconsiderate and irresponsible thing that I could have done, bringing a son into a world consumed by war. This world of ours that was, instead of being built for our children's future, was being slowly torn apart a piece at a time. This world that I now, in my own selfish desire to somehow retain some part of my_ _lifemate, had forced onto the shoulders of my new born infant son."_

_"I will forever regret that future that I have borne him into, because like his father, I can see in his eyes that he is one of Primus' chosen sons. Someone that will be one day called upon to lead all of Primus' children to peace, or freedom, or up out of the grasp of Chaos Himself. A future that NO child should be forced to bear."_

_"As I held him, my barely a cycle old child, I knew that same look would put him in danger for the rest of his life, if the rest of the world knew of his existence. So I did the only thing I knew would save him, the only thing that would insure that he NEVER be placed in a position where either he or his father had to choose between his life and the lives of our people."_

_"I contacted the Mech that had given both myself and my son's father a second chance at life and asked him to do the same for my son. I barely had enough time to choose a name for him before they arrived and took him to be with the other war orphans. It was a name that I knew he would never use, still it would be in my spark and perhaps one day, after this war was over he could reclaim it."_

_"Then, just like that he was gone. Gone as if he had never been and I had never held the child I had so longed for, the piece of Orion that would live on forever, in my arms. Safe and anonymous, so much so that he would be almost half grown before I would ever see him again."_

_"I would however, shortly before Orion was to leave on the Ark, Alpha Trion contacted me and asked would I be willing to let him and Kup bring the Orphans down to my base until after Prime and his expedition returned. I told him that of course I would be more than willing to do this and that he should bring the children here_ _immediately._

_"And so it was that I saw HIM. Out in front, leading the other kids, telling them to do this or that to be safe and making sure that every one except him had what they needed. Granted once all that was over with he played around and took great delight in annoying Kup, as well as Alpha. As well as the fact he looked nothing like the small son I had sent away to safety. His fathers colors traded for something much more audacious, that seemed to symbolize a love of speed that if I or Orion ever had it was to long ago for either of us to remember. Still it was impossible for me to NOT know him for who and what he was. His power, his grace, his beauty, so much like his father before Megatron had ever decided to pull his trigger, that I indeed had my wish. A part of ORION, would indeed live on."_

_"I managed to catch the gaze of the guardians and begged them with my spark to at the very least confirm it for me, in my own mind. The slight nod I received was all I needed to send my spark soaring. It was him. This brash young Mech who had taken the name of Hot Rod, was indeed my lost son, Rodimus."_

I saw the disk come to an end. I heard it click off and knew that it was time to take it out and go put what I had learned to use. Still all I could do for the moment was sit and gape. Everything that my dreams had told me was true, every half-remembered vision and fever dream that I had seen had pointed me to this truth.

Hot Rod was indeed the one that we were looking for, the kid in more danger than any of the others. Hot Rod was the Next Prime.


	8. Chapter 8

Land Of Confusion: Part 8

I thought, I really honestly believed that I just might fall through the floor. All of the things that I had seen, everything that had ran through my head as I tried to find my way out of the insanity I had been forced into. It was all true.

Now I had my why. Now I had the reason that all of this horror had been visited upon these kids. Somehow, I had seen the future, perhaps one possible one, or something else entirely. Whatever it had been, there had been the sure knowledge that this child, Hot Rod, Rodimus, would be the one to take Orion's place as the next Prime.

It really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. I got the impression, when I had met him before, that he was a natural leader. That people followed him due to his honestly and charisma, that indeed he was a great deal like Orion. I even remembered thinking this myself. I also vaguely remembered Orion knowing the name "Rodimus" when I had been on the farm and called it out to him, thinking him just a fever dream. Now I knew why.

I put my face in my hands for a moment and just thought. Everything made a great deal more sense now. All of what they were doing was now crystal clear. I have no idea who the mastermind behind it all was for the Decepticons, but now I had my "why".

That left only one piece of the puzzle missing.

How where they finding the kids every single time one of the homing beacons went off?

Somewhere, in all of this, everything that I has seen and heard so far, there had to be some kind of an answer. But now, I only had a limited time to find it. I only had until the next beacon went off and these locusts descended upon poor Hot Rod. If they got their hands on him, then everything, all the suffering of all of these kids would be in vain.

That meant I had to think of something and think of it right now. Of course in order to think of something, I had to know all of the facts. So I pulled my self together and headed over to the rooms terminal to look those facts over.

Technology had failed me in keeping them safe, and the brute force of both myself and the elite unit of the Autobots hadn't done much better. All I had left to rely on were my instincts. In trusting them I hoped that I would find the commonality in all of this and the key to making it to the kid in time.

So what were my instincts telling me? It was telling me this. That other than that each of these attacks had been vicious and unnecessarily brutal; there had been ABSOLUTLY nothing in common between any of them. The style and the way they attacked, even the neatness or sloppiness of each attack had been totally random. First we had found the aftermath, with Arcee. Then we had found, with the Twins and Gnaw, an attack that for some reason had been cut short or maybe just sloppy. Lastly with Blurr and Springer, we had found them during the attack.

Not one thing in common. No single shred of similarity that pointed to any motive or unfortunately any way of anticipation. It was almost as if each of the attacks weren't planned until after the beacon went off.

I ground my teeth for a moment thinking about all of this, and wanted to put my fist through the screen of the terminal. I was on the process of fuming like this when it occurred to me that I was possibly looking at the answer I needed.

What IF the attacks weren't planned until after they had the information? That could mean that they weren't tracking the signal. That being the case it could only mean one thing. The information was coming not from any kind of tracker, but they were somehow getting the information as we got it. It was coming from our very own base.

If the information was coming from the base, if they were getting it at the same time we were. What then was the common factor each time we got one of the signals? Again felt myself slam into a brick wall here. There was, just like with the attacks, nothing similar in each of the times that we had gotten a signal. I ran over the tapes and could see that just like with the attacks themselves, all of it was totally random.

That was when I realized what I was missing. I had been going over the tapes of each and remembering them from my point of view. When I stopped and looked at them the way they had been recorded I was seeing what had been right in front of me all the time. There was only one thing that each of the attacks and each of the beacons had in common.

Me.

The only thing that had been a constant the whole time, the only thing that had been there for each incidence, was my self. I had been there, in the middle of everything, involved, listening and seeing everything that went on the whole time. Somehow all of this, everything that had happened so far, was all my fault!

I continued to sit there for just a few moments going over this revelation in my mind. How could I possibly be the only thing that all of these attacks had in common? How could I possibly be giving away information to the people that wanted to put these kids in the ground? OR was it something that I would unaware of?

I had been their prisoner for a very long time. They could have, and did for that matter, do whatever they wanted to me. There were a million ways they could have gotten something on me or with me, that would give them whatever information they needed for their "master plan". Yet a part of me still didn't want to believe it, I wanted to hear them admit it.

It took me several minutes of digging in my bags to find my cell phone and a few more to hook it into the terminal. It had long ago been doctored to work on Cybertronian communication frequencies, and I was hoping that I could use that to my advantage.

It took a few more moments of messing with the thing to get it tuned into the Con's channels, however I did get it up and running and then put my call through to the person I wanted to talk to. I glared into the screen as my message buzzed along. Then continued to glare more as the person I wanted to see finally appeared.

"Greetings "Miss" Angel," Megatron sneered, "What can I do for you?"

"Don't you dare patronize me you over grown Cap gun!" I snarled back, "I want the truth! How do you keep tracking down the kids, how do you keep knowing just where to go to find them?"

"Really?" He smiled, "I could indeed tell you considering there isn't anything you can do about it."

"What do you mean?" I demanded.

"I mean that First off, I don't think you really WANT to know. Secondly, that when you DO know the truth, there isn't one thing that you or Prime can do to stop me."

"Stop screwing with me and tell me!"

He gave a noncommittal shrug on the other end of the line.

"Very well," He stepped back, "But I shall do better than just tell you. I'll show you."

He stepped further back from his screen and motioned to one behind him. It was the very one that I remembered seeing Starscream sitting at when I had been there. For a second or two I stared at it, not knowing what it was that I was looking at. What it looked like was the hall of mirrors that you might find in a fun house somewhere, and I had no definition for it.

Then I blinked.

When I blinked the image flickered and I realized what it was that I was seeing. It was the most insidious thing that could have been done, and yet at the same time it was positively brilliant. What it turned out to be, was a transmitter placed in my left eye, sending every single thing I was seeing or hearing to the Decepticons.

"You…My…" I stammered.

"Exactly," He mock bowed to me, "I must thank you for you assistance. Without you none of this would have been possible."

"You…" now I was furious, "You think I'm just going to go on letting you do this! You're out of your mind! I have your lil' plan figured out Megatron. All I have to do..."

"Is What human?" He glared, "There IS nothing you can do! There is no way to stop the transmissions. As long as you can still see, the link will keep on transmitting its information. I finally have you and Prime exactly where I want you."

"And how do you figure that?" I ground out.

"Simple Girl," He folded his arms, "You will surrender and when the time comes we will allow you to track down the boy and leave him and you unharmed."

"And if we don't surrender?" I prompted.

"Then you can watch him die," Megatron finished, "You have no choice. You and Prime will submit to my demands or loose the boy. It's that simple."

"You think I don't have a choice?" I glared at him, "Then you really have misjudged me."

"What are you talking about?" He looked back at me as if it hadn't occurred to him that I might decide to do something else.

"You think the only choice I have is either making Prime surrender to you or watching as you murder the kid?" I reached around and rummaged in my bag, "You forgot my third choice."

"And that is?" He almost looked bored.

"That is this," I hit the button on the thing I was holding and felt the familiar click, "That thing will keep transmitting as long as I can still see out of my left eye right?"

"That is …" It suddenly occurred to him what I was going to do, "YOU WOULDN'T! You're not that insane!"

"I don't consider love insanity creep. You've put my children in danger for the LAST time."

"YOUR children?" He questioned.

"Yes MINE," I glared back again, "thanks to you and your "doctor", these kids are as close as I am ever going to come to having a child of my own."

I moved my hand up so he could see what I was holding.

"Let me show you, you tinfoil asshole, just how far I am willing to go to save one of MY CHILDREN!"

Somewhere in the base Orion slowly became aware of a strange sound. It took a moment for him to realize what the sound was but he knew he had heard it somewhere before. It only took a moment more for him to realize what it was that he was hearing. It was my screaming.

I guess I must have screamed, because it hurt like hell. Still I felt a great wave of satisfaction as I looked up at the monitor and saw Megatron gaping at me and what I had just done. I swallowed the lump in my throat and reached for the controls.

"You loose you SOB," I told him, and then proceeded to cut the connection.

Then the door snapped open and Orion followed by Magnus and several others came into the room and just stopped and stared. Stared at me, at the blood on my face and hand as I held it over where my left eye had been. They stared at the knife that was impaling the transmitter to the floor as well as staring at the now static filled view screen.

I looked up at Orion and continued to hold my hand over my face as I pointed to the thing on the floor.

"I found out," I had to swallow again here and start over, "I found out how they were finding the kids."

I must have blacked out at that point, because the next thing I remember is waking up in the med center of the base and looking up, all be it with only one eye now, at Orion.

"WHAT did you DO?" he demanded.

"The only thing I could do to save Hot Rod," I told him as I sat up.

"They had put a transmitter in your eye, that much I know, but why did you…" He couldn't seem to get out what I had done for some reason.

"Because Megatron told me that the only way the thing would stop transmitting was if I could no longer see out of that eye." I held up my hand to him, "and don't tell me that there must have been some way to shut it off, or some other way to keep it from getting the information, because there wasn't. I could only save one, Hot Rod or my eye. I chose Hot Rod."

"Why?" He asked, "I know you care about the kids, and I know that you think He's connected somehow, that he's the next Prime but..."

"I don't think Orion, I Know, and so do you if you really admit it," I sighed and looked away, "I also did it because he's your son."

"Say WHAT?"

Okay, now I had his attention.

"Hot Rod, is Rodimus, your son," I blinked as best I could and looked up at him, "Remember on the farm? Remember how I said the next Prime's name was Rodimus? I always wondered why you knew that name, even if I just considered you a dream at the time. Well now I know, it's your son's name right?"

He nodded numbly.

"Well Hot Rod IS Rodimus, I heard it from Elita-1's own journal. She never told you it was him because she died soon after she found out, when you left on the Ark. But Kup and Alpha Trion knew. That's why neither of them was shocked when all of this mess started."

"Hot Rod… He's…" He shook himself out of it, "And you did this to save him. For me."

He touched the side of my face that was now incased in bandages.

"I did it for us," I shot back, "I did it because I Love and care about these kids as if they were my own. Lets face it Orion, they are as close as I am ever gonna come."

"You don't," He tried, "You don't know that."

"I do," I shook my own head, "It's and empty spot in my life that I have to live with every day. But now I have a chance to be a mom to these kids, and they need one. So I acted like a mother, I did what I had to do to protect him."

Orion Finally sighed, then picked me up in his hands and held me against him like a pet kitten.

"What am I gonna do with you?"

I had to smile over that as I snuggled up against him, "Same thing you always have I guess."

He smiled back and set me back down.

"Now listen," He bent down so he was looking right at me, "You are going to stay put here when the next beacon goes off. Let me handle it for once."

"BUT…!" I tried.

"No buts," he stated flatly, "Just do it. You'll have your hands full looking after all of these kids when they get better."

He stood up and smiled at me once more then left me in the med center to mull all of this over.

That was when I heard the alarms go off signaling the next beacon had been received. I leaned back satisfied that this time they wouldn't be able to find him and I had successfully cut off Megatron's information route.

That was when it hit me, that Hot Rod might not yet be safe.

I had been going over in my mind where he might go to. Of course I could see him going back to somewhere he felt safe, most likely the place that had been Elita's under ground base. Then something else occurred to me. The transmitter had still been in place when I had watched Elita's last message.

"Oh NO," I hauled my self up and scrabbled down off the bed.

Hot Rod was still in danger and despite the fact that I had been told to stay put, I had a feeling that before it was over, both he and Orion were going to need my help.


	9. Chapter 9

Land Of Confusion: Part 9

I just about broke my neck getting down off of the repair birth in the med bay and came even closer to getting it broke as I scrambled up to the command center. I was hoping and praying that I was wrong and that Hot Rod would not go running to the place I thought he might. Still, I knew things, knew that this was where he had been taken to be safe when Orion disappeared all those years ago from his home world. I knew that even though she had been forced to do it at a distance, his real mother had been there and had loved him. So deep in my heart I knew that this is where the poor kid would run to feel safe. He would run back to Elita-1's base. Or rather what was left of it.

But I was hoping I was wrong as I skidded around the corner and round Kup there at his screens.

"KUP!" I screeched.

The poor mech jumped about ten feet up and looked down at me in complete shock.

"Miss Angel! What are you doing out of the med bay?"

I was panting at this point, holding on to the wall, trying very hard to get enough air back into my lungs so I could answer him.

"I…" I had to stop gasp some more and then try again, "I need to know where they went Kup. I need to know where Hot Rod's beacon came from."

"Wha…Why?" he asked.

"Because the kid might not be out of danger yet," I told him, "Now please, tell me where it came from!"

He looked at me again for a second to make sure that I wasn't bonkers or having a hallucination from blood loss and then nodded. He tapped a few keys on the screen and a map popped up there.

"Here," he tapped the screen, "Grid Epsilon."

"And what's IN grid Epsilon?" I prompted, "What's there for him to go to and hide."

"Nothing but the…" He trailed off, "But the ruins of Elita-1's base."

I shook my head up at him, "He saw the tape Kup. The link was still active when I watched the tape."

"Tape?"

"Elita's recording!" I almost screamed.

"OH!" Now it was starting to make sense to him, "But …!"

"Exactly," I turned and headed back to my room, "Get that thing I was on before charged!"

Seconds later I was back carrying as many weapons as I could, and then heading out on the transport that Kup had managed to work up for me.

I floored it and did my best to head in the direction that he had told me, going over streets that had been made for something a whole lot bigger than me.

I almost made it, I swear I did. Maybe if I had been a little bit faster, maybe if I had tried harder or made the connection sooner I would have gotten there in time. As it was, I was about to come around the corner when I heard it. The 'it' I heard, being Orion yelling at the top of his vocals, for dear life.

"DON'T DO IT SHOCKWAVE!"

I skidded to a stop and almost vomited. The very thing I had feared, the one thing I had come all of this way and caused all of this suffering for was happening.

Shockwave had a hold of Hot Rod.

"One step closer Prime and the child dies, UNDERSTAND!"

Shockwave had him in a head lock and was in the process of dragging him toward the entrance of what might have once been a base, a very long time ago. Hot Rod for his part was not being a model hostage and was doing everything short of taking a bite out of his captor to try and get loose. However he was hopelessly outmatched. Shockwave was twice the kid's size and from what little I had seen and heard about him, he was about three times as strong.

"Let GO OF M…" Hot Rod managed to get out about half of that before Shockwave's arm closed down on his throat and kept any more sound from escaping.

"Shockwave," Orion was trying now to reason with him, "Just let the kid go. He's not got any part of this."

"NO part of this?" Shockwave actually some how managed to look stunned, "You have NO clue just how important he is. No clue what he's meant to destroy."

He took a step further back toward the dark, gaping wound in the building.

"But I have no intention of letting that kind of power be destroyed. I plan on finding a way to control it, harness it, and finally We Decepticons will rule as was always intended."

Ultra Magnus looked at the other Mech and was almost gaping as much as me.

"You're mad Shockwave," he told him, "What you want can't ever happen. It can't ever be! It will destroy not only us but the whole of creation!"

"You are fools," the Decepticon continued, "What do you know of anything at all? You and your foolish breed are the descendants of SLAVES! Decepticons were born and bred for battle. Yet your weak kind have the ultimate power of our race! NO MORE!"

He turned and looked down at Hot Rod.

"The Line of Autobot Primes ends with you young one," He nodded to himself, approving of his own ranting, "And then we will bear the Matrix as The Decepticons always should have."

Before anyone could do anything else but manage to get out some shocked gasps, Shockwave literally lifted Hot Rod up by his neck and back-pedaled into the building. There was a ten second delay as what had happened registered with the Autobots but that was all that the One Eye'd creep needed. A few seconds later everyone was engulfed in a huge debris cloud and we all heard the wall come crashing down.

"NO!" I heard Orion cry again as loud as he could manage.

A few seconds later when the cloud cleared I could see that even though he, himself was half buried alive, Orion was already trying to move it and get into the building before something happened.

"STOP IT, Optimus!" Magnus told him, "You're only going to make it worse!"

"WE have to get IN THERE!" Orion shot back.

"We can't," Magnus tried again. "None of us can."

I was still on my scooter and had noticed that near the top there was a place that no cybertronian present could have ever hoped to get through with out moving more of the rock. It was, however, just the right size for a 'miserable little flesh creature.'

"One of us can!" I called as I gunned up the motor on the vehicle and kicked it over into high gear.

"Move that!" I called as I shot past Orion, "Then get your butt in here as fast as you can!"

For his part, he just stared. I apparently had been surprising my Autobot husband a lot since we got to his world and now I was doing it again. I revved the motor on the lil' vehicle as hard as I could and shot up the pile of rubble into the gap.

As soon as I was in there I managed to get about another two feet before the poor thing I had been on gave out. I got off it and took a look around at where my stunt had gotten me. It must have been some kind of air shaft or something was similar once upon a time, but of course it was built on the scale for Cybertronians and there for was just about perfect for a girl my size to go crawling through. Just like the one I had snuck into at the Decepticon base.

What I didn't take into account was that no one had ever done what I was doing here in a couple of million years and it probably wasn't that good of an idea. I found this out in the next couple of seconds as I walked away from the little transport I had been on. I heard a creaking sound and all of a sudden it just vanished through the floor. I heard the thing smash to bits on the floor below and that's when it registered with me that I had better get out of this thing as soon as I possibly could. So I turned and headed into the darkness hoping that I could some how find a way out of this and manage to get to the kid before Shockwave did something stupid.

I didn't have to wait long. I was a few hundred meters into the thing when I heard it. Something on the other side of the thin wall was in the process of either beating the snot out of someone or getting the snot beat out of them. I took off running and managed to get up to a grate, just in time to look through and see Hot Rod ricochet off the far wall.

"You miserable brat," Shockwave told him, "You don't even know what you are, do you?"

The kid sat up and wiped the energon off his face and glared defiantly up at his attacker.

"No I don't know what I am," He growled, "Thanks to your kind I'll never know. You people murdered my parents. You left me and all of the rest of us all alone in this world. So your right creep, I don't."

"Murdered…?" Shockwave trailed off, "that's what they told you? Perhaps they didn't want you then, eh?"

"What are you talking about?" The kid managed to drag him self up into a semi-standing position.

"Your parents were never murdered boy," Shockwave told him, "Prime and Elita-1 are your parents."

"That's not funny, asshole!" Hot Rod cried.

"No its not, is it?" The purple mech taunted, "That they sent their only son away, rather than keep him. No, I don't find that amusing at all."

"STOP IT!" the poor kid was almost on the verge of breaking down. "Just stop it!"

"No."

That set Hot Rod off. He must have known that he was no match for someone like Shockwave, but all he wanted right then was to shut him up. To make him stop telling lies about his past, to just make him go away and let the kid have his peace. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. I couldn't see what happened at this point because they were out of my line of sight. I did hear it though, and I wish to God Almighty that I hadn't.

I swallowed my own emotions at what I knew was going on down there, and what I had already seen and began prying on the grate trying to get the thing open so I could get down there and stop it. I heard another huge crash and looked up to see Hot Rod laying against the wall again, this time however, he wasn't moving.

Shockwave come charging into my line of view again, looking like he had taken a few good hits from the kid and was ticked off about it. Still he had managed to get the upper hand on him and now had Hot Rod right where he wanted him. I continued to pry on the grate trying my hardest to get it off as the monster reached down and for pure spite backhanded the kid again.

"You INSOLENT…!"

He was too angry to finish this, and so he settled for reaching down and clamping his hand around Hot Rod's throat yet again. He pulled him away from the wall and did his level best to twist Hot Rod's head back as far as it would go, in the process exposing most of his neck. Shockwave held him there for a second as he did something that I didn't realize he was capable of. The blaster barrel that served as his left hand retracted and in its place what had to be one of the wickedest looking blades I had ever seen snapped into being.

"Give my regards to Primus, chosen one." Shockwave snarled.

He drew back his blade hand and I knew what he was going to do, and that right then I had no choice. Even if I had a choice I wouldn't have done anything other than what I did. He was going to slit the kid's throat just because at some point in the future he had the chance of becoming the next Prime, just because he was Orion's son. Some where on the primal level in my being that affronted every single thing I stood for. For the first time in my life, I really wanted to kill someone.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I screeched

Then stopped even trying to get the grate off, I just turned my gun on it and opened it the easy way, Full-auto.

"WHA…?" Shockwave looked up at me and in doing so presented me with the perfect target.

"Get your hands off my son!" I screamed.

And again I opened up the weapon in my hands on full auto. Only this time it wasn't a grate that I was blowing away. It was Shockwave.

I really don't know how much lead I pumped into him or at what point he finally dropped the kid I had come to save. But eventually it did happen. He slowly put his hand up to his head and staggered back against the wall, finally sliding down it and going off line.

I didn't take my finger off the trigger until I was sure he wasn't going to move any time soon. Then I somehow got down from my perch in the vent and headed over to where Hot Rod was.

The poor thing was on the ground curled to one side looking like he might have preferred being killed to what he had learned from Shockwave about his parents. I walked up to him and could feel tears start running down the side of my face that still could produce them. I got over to him, dropped down on my knees and put my head against his.

"God I'm sorry," I told him, "I'm so very sorry."

He moved a little bit and his optics came on and looked at me.

"Miss…Angel?"

I nodded, "Can you ever forgive me Hot Rod?"

"For…" He doubled over and coughed something into his hands and tried again, "For what?"

"For bringing all of this down on you," I shook my head, "you and all of your friends."

"Wasn't yer fault…"

"It was," I said, "I…"

"My parents…" He looked at me, "They didn't…" and had to turn away as his emotions over come him.

"Oh No! No baby," I shook my head at him, "They wanted you, so bad. You're mom and your dad."

"Shockwave…"

"Forget him, he doesn't matter." I told him, "Your real mom wanted you and so do I."

He looked at me for a second and smiled at me, before he had to shut down again from what had happened. I sat there for a second and was about to go and find Orion myself when the door to the place where we were at was suddenly ripped off of its hinges and a very pissed looking Orion was revealed.

"Angel what..?" He looked at me, at Hot Rod, and at what was left of Shockwave.

"I did what I had to, Orion," I looked away from him, "Your not the only one willing to do what's needed for this war, Or these kids."

"Oh Angel," he came slowly over to me and knelt down next to me and the kid.

"He's alive," I told him, "If I had been one minute later, Orion…"

"Its okay," He said, "No one is going to fault you for anything you did today or any other day."

He picked me up and perched me on one shoulder and then carefully picked Hot Rod up and started to the door.

"It's over," he sighed, "Let's go home."

I leaned my head against his for a moment and actually let myself believe that it was going to be that simple. I should have known that it never is, never was and never will be. We stepped out into the hallway and I opened my eyes, and screamed.

Megatron was standing there in the hallway, fusion cannon cocked on all three of us.

"Shockwave was right Prime," He said, "Be it through its destruction or its ascension to the Decepticons, today the Autobot's loose the power of the Matrix forever."

Orion took two steps back like he was about to toss both me and Hot Rod into the room we had just left and fight it out with Megatron, when the Enemy leader did something that was completely unexpected. Instead of firing on the three of us he aimed his weapon at the ground and fired. He must have known that there was some kind of pit or tunnel under there because the world suddenly dropped out from under all of us and I felt myself falling.

I half-turned and saw the wall heading right for me, knew that I was going to bounce off of it and then keep on falling. The only thoughts running through my mind right then were those of pure failure and defeat. I hadn't saved Orion, or Hot Rod or even myself. Now all of us were going to die.

_"God please forgive me"_ I thought, _"Please forgive me, I tried."_

_"I tried."_


	10. Chapter 10

Land Of Confusion: Part 10

I slowly opened my eyes and stared up at the ceiling for a second. That was when it hit me. I shouldn't be staring at the ceiling; I shouldn't be opening my eyes. I should be somewhere near the bottom of Cybertron thanks to what Megatron had felt compelled to dump myself, Orion and Hot Rod down. That realization that I wasn't at the bottom of that hole made me sit up and take a look around at where I actually was.

It looked like my bedroom back home, back at my house on the farm. Now I was officially freaked out. There was no logical reason that I should be here, and the chances where that it was A) some kind of hallucination, or B) I was dead and this was either Heaven or Hell. So I decided to go and find out which it was, and where I was. I tossed off the covers that someone had put over me and started to head toward my bedroom door. I say started because I really didn't get that far before I felt like I was going to collapse.

I took one or two more wobbly steps and was just about to fall flat on my face when the oddest thing so far in a series of very odd circumstances happened. Someone caught me.

"Hey there," They said, "You shouldn't be up. You're not strong enough to be moving around yet."

I braced myself against whoever had a hold of me and turned to look at him.

"Who…" I looked and I gaped.

He was some kind of transformer that was for sure. But what in the universe he transformed into was beyond me. After being around these guys for a while, you can normally tell what they change into if you know what to look for. This person was a complete mystery to me. I couldn't make any his strange form fit into any pattern at all in my mind so I just stared, at him.

For his part he seemed amused at my mental struggles, shook his head and smiled at me.

"You're not supposed to be able to tell what I transform into," He replied to my unasked question.

"You…You can read minds?" I stammered.

"Among other things, yes." he said.

Then proceeded to very gently turn me around and start leading me back to the bed. I kept looking up at him and gaping wondering if any kind of explanation was going to be forthcoming.

He was still in the process of leading me when I noticed something. I caught a look at myself in the mirror over my dresser. Someone had gone to a whole lot of trouble to make this look like my home and so the antique gilded mirror that had been a gift from my mom was there in its proper spot. I stared into it for a second and the transformer that had me must have realized what I was doing because he stopped and let me look at myself for a few seconds.

That was when it hit me. For what ever strange reason, all of the times that I have been unconscious, but still had my mind, I had always appeared the way that I would have looked in real life. So what made me stop and stare into the mirror was just that. It was my very own stare that looked back at me from the glass, with TWO eyes. One was my normal color, the other with an iris the bright blue of an Autobot Optic.

"What the…!" I wiggled loose from him, nearly fell again and finally made it over to the dresser. "My..there's…"

"You like?" He walked up behind me and smiled softly, "I'm sorry I couldn't get it the color of your other eye. But I can only mess around with things so much ya know?"

I turned away from the glass and looked at this odd person with me again. He looked like an older, much, MUCH, older version of Hot Rod. Besides that the main difference was his coloring. Where Hot Rod was all flames and flashy speed colors, this person was a deep regal looking blue with steel gray in some places and other colors that humans had no name for.

He finally made me go back to the bed and sit down while I kept on staring, finally managing to find my voice again.

"Who are you?"

"Sorry," He shook his head, "But I can't tell you that."

I looked around and gnawed my lower lip for a second and then promptly blurted out my next question like a complete moron.

"Am I dead?"

This time he laughed, "No, not yet. Not for a very long while actually."

"Then…" I looked around me again, "Where…?"

"Someplace safe," He turned and looked away from me, "I brought you here to rest and to keep you safe until you're strong enough to go back. All of you."

"I don't understand." I said looking away from him for the first time since I met him.

"Its okay," He smiled again, "You don't have to."

"I wish…" I sighed and suddenly felt on the verge of tears.

"What?" He came over and sat down next to me, "What do you wish for?"

"Huh?"

"You see," He told me, "I can't mess with reality too much, but I can reward you for what you did. Is there anything that you want?"

I stared at him again, this time to see if he were joking. When it got to be pretty clear to me that he was serious I put on my most serious face and told him exactly what I wanted most in the universe.

"I want my Husband and His Son back."

Now he looked ready to laugh.

"You're not paying attention," He reached over to the other side of the bed and gave the covers a tug downward.

To my utter surprise there was Orion, laying on his side and looking like he always did when he was asleep.

"They're already safe," He motioned to the couch on the other side of the room that I hadn't noticed before. "See? You didn't need my help for that."

Guess who was on the couch, snoring.

"Hot Rod?" now I was getting completely confused. "But Megatron… he…?"

"Got his skid-plate handed to him by Ultra Magnus for what he tried to pull." The transformer grinned, "It was rather fun to watch. A real shame you couldn't see it."

"Ummmm…" I just looked on getting even more confused.

"You know," He turned away from me and suddenly looked very sad, "It was never supposed to happen, the war, any of this."

"You can't stop the choices people make with their own free will," I told him, "It's not like your responsible for the whole planet."

"Well now that you mention it…" he grinned, "but you do have a good point. I guess I'm not responsible for what they choose to do."

"We all have to live with what we do," I sighed and pulled my knees up to my chin, "Just like I have to live with failing the way I did."

"Now wait one second," he almost looked mad, "Who TOLD you that you failed?"

"Well, I mean," I tried, "Its not like I managed to save them."

"GIRL," he looked completely exasperated now, "What do you THINK you did?"

I just stared at him.

"You have got one major complex you know that?"

"I guess," I was still at a loss for what was going on here.

He shook his head again and the grin returned, "Seriously, is there anything you want?"

I opened my mouth to repeat what I had said and he held up his hand.

"Besides that," He told me, "You already have made sure that's going to happen on your own. Is there anything you want for yourself?"

"I …"I stopped and tried really hard to think, "I don't know."

He put his hand to his chin and thought for a second, "Well, I'll think of something then myself. In the mean time…"

He walked over and nudged Hot Rod. Who promptly pulled a pillow over his head and groaned.

"FIVE more minutes Kup," He said muffledly.

"Come on Young blood," The strange transformer told him as he hauled him up, "These two need some time mono e mono."

I continued to sit there as the stranger bodily carted Hot Rod away and left room empty save for Orion and my self. I wanted to get up and go after him to see if it was all really a dream or just something my fevered brain had concocted to make myself feel better. I was about to when I felt something move behind me and I turned to see Orion now awake looking up at me, smiling.

"Hi," He simply said.

That was all it took. Everything that had gone on from the moment we got here, everything that had gone on before we got here came to a head and I collapsed in his arms, desperately needed to just be there. To be there for no other reason than the fact that I loved this man more than anything else I had ever loved in my whole existence.

He put one arm around me and reached up with the other hand to unsnap his mask and set it on the floor next to the bed. He then put both arms around me and pulled me into the deepest most passionate kiss we had ever shared since the first kiss in the loft of my barn.

As I held him, exulted in the feeling of just being so in love, kissed him and had him return it, behind my closed eyes the world exploded in white light. Somewhere something changed and for just that one moment, the two of us were closer than we had ever been before.

I held on to my love as the light began to fade and darkness started creeping up the edges of it. Still, despite the fact that I knew the dark was coming this time I wasn't afraid of falling into it because I knew that no matter what I had his love and that was more than enough.

I don't know how long the vision lasted or what else happened, but the next thing I knew I was coming back to consciousness again and this time it HURT. My head was pounding and my neck felt like the Sahara had taken up residency there. I tossed my head on the pillow and tried to open my eyes.

"HEY First Aid!" I heard some one yell, "Get over here I think she's coming too!"

"UGH," I snapped, "Please don't yell. PLEASE!"

"Sorry," Someone said a lot quieter.

The next second I was trying to sit up and wondering why my eyes wouldn't open and just what had happened this time.

"Would someone come over here and get this OFF my face!"

"Hold on!" someone said.

Eventually this First Aid person made it over to me and ever so slowly took the bandages off my face.

"Sorry Miss Angel," he told me, "But we were afraid that the eye you had left might be damaged by some of the lights around here, so we took some precautions."

"Just get it off," I shot back.

"She's definitely feeling better," I heard a familiar voice say.

"Orion?" I asked, "Are you okay?"

I was still in the process of getting the stuff taken off of my face so all I could do right then was listen to him as he replied.

"Yes actually," I could feel him come over to where I was, "You on the other hand look like you've been ran over by..."

"Don't you dare say it," I snarled.

"Okay sorry," I could hear the grin in there somewhere.

The young medic finally finished with the bandage and I immediately clapped both hands over my face waiting to get used to the light. That was when I noticed that the whole med bay around me had gone quiet.

"What?" I cracked my right eye open, "What are you all staring at?"

Orion's eyes were huge as he came over to me.

"Angel," He almost sounded scared, "Take your other hand down. Show me your left eye."

I glared at him, "very funny."

He shook his head, "Please Angel, just humor me."

So I humored him, the remains of my odd dream suddenly coming back to haunt me.

"What it's not like I grew…" I trailed off my self as I realized something. "OH MY…"

I pulled my hand down and opened my left eye.

"It was real," I heard Orion whisper.

"Its," I touched the side of my face no longer feeling the indentation where the eye should have been missing, but a healthy living eye.

"What…?" I started

"Sweet PRIMUS," Was all that poor First Aid could get out.

"Basically," Orion replied.

A few seconds' later people were rushing into the med bay and Both Orion and I were suddenly receiving hugs and being told what heroes we both were. Just about all of the kids were in that mess of people who headed in to tell us what all had gone on. It took a while but eventually we got the whole story out of all of them.

Apparently after Megs had decided that the best way to get what he wanted was to send us on a freefall; Ultra Magnus had shown up in time to learn what had happened. Just like the strange person in the dream had told me, he had then proceeded to beat the living snot out of Megatron and drag him back to the brig by his fusion cannon.

The moment he was back he had started organizing search parties and had gone out looking for the three of us regardless of what might or might not stand in his way. When the Con's had gotten wind of what had been done to Megatron they had all steered clear of all the searchers and so they had been able to go about their business with out that much harassment.

It was about two or three days after we had disappeared that someone had found another way down into the shaft and all of them had come running down to see what was going on. By that point there hadn't been that many people who didn't know what was going on, still it took them the better part of three days to find the three of us.

When they finally did they got shocks on all of our parts. For some reason, both Hot Rod and Orion were in stasis lock. This condition can happen naturally but most of the time it's something that someone goes into because someone put a transformer in it. Something similar was going on with me. Until the moment I woke up and started complaining I had apparently been so out of it that nothing short of a nuclear meltdown would have woken me up, and I'm not even sure that would have worked.

So, something DID happen to us down there, but what I don't know if I will ever be able to say.

But something good did come out of that, our little adventurer. This was the last person that was on Megatron's hit list, there were no other people that he was going to send assassins to target. No more innocent kids were going to die because he was willing to do anything to win the war.

As more of them crowded in to see me and make sure that I was doing alright and to let me know that they were alright to, I had a feeling that for the first time in a long time, the Autobots had taken a huge step toward winning this war once and for all.


	11. Chapter 11

Land Of Confusion: Epilogue

I was in the process of making my way through the Ark to go out and get some fresh air, while doing that I was also enjoying what I was seeing.

We had wound up staying on Cybertron for a about another week after I had woken up but ultimately we decided that if this happened once, it was bound to happen again. That belief was bolstered up one night when the alarms in the base went off and we made it down to the detention area in time to see Megatron drag Blitzwing and Astrotrain out of there by the scruffs of their necks.

So we came to the decision that the kids would be safest with the two of us. Back on earth were we could personally make sure that they were safe and that no one would be coming after them again any time soon.

To say that they had settled in well would be putting it lightly. It seems that despite the fact that they are all orphans and chiefly mine and Orion's responsibility, everyone here has made a place for the kids in their hearts.

Blurr who had been the slowest to get over what had happened had found a friend in Bluestreak. I passed the rec-room and could hear the two of them going a mile a minute in conversation. A very good sign, one that said yet again things were getting back to normal.

The Wheel twins along with Gnaw had decided that they were going to make the lives of the Lambos interesting and I had to duck as the kids tore past being pursued by Sideswipe in a vain attempt to retrieve the cards that I had returned to him, Sunny and Prowl. I gave them back, ten seconds later The Wheel Twins had swiped them and were trying to figure out just what those odd things were used for.

Arcee and Springer had been welcomed into the group by Hound, Jazz, and Skyfire and as I passed another lounge I could spot them all howling at something that looked like "Attack of the Killer Shrews".

Finally there was Hot Rod, the only one I hadn't spotted so far and the one that had, unlike the others stayed closely attached to my self and Orion.

I made it out to my favorite perch on the observation deck and finally found him. He was sitting there looking out at the sunset trying to sort through everything.

"Hey Kiddo," I called as I walked up to him.

"Hi Miss Angel." He replied softly.

"You know you can drop the Miss," I sat down at the bench across from him,

"Angel is fine. I wouldn't even mind if you called me…" I trailed off not wanting to say more about that.

"Can I ask you something?" he said softly.

"Anything kiddo," I leaned forward.

"Why did you, why were you so willing to help us," He tried, "Why were you so willing to accept me?"

"As Orion's son?" I finished for him and he nodded.

"Well," I sat back, "I guess it's because I don't, have any kids of my own. But mostly it's because I love your father."

"You really do don't you?" he looked amazed.

"Yes," I told him, "and I'm sorry you never got to know your real mom. But I do love your father. He has always been there for me; he has always loved me without condition when I wasn't even willing to love myself. Most of all he has never given up on me, and he never will."

Hot Rod shut off his optics and thought about that for a second.

I continued, "If he's going to give me a love like that, then I would be a horrid person if I didn't give that kind of love in return. For me that love includes making a place in my heart for his son, and loving him as my own."

"You mean that?" He looked at me, eyes full of longing to belong to someone at long last.

"I mean it kiddo," I nodded as I heard someone walk up, "We both do."

Hot Rod turned and saw that Orion was right behind him and finally, he gave in to his emotions and put his arms around the parent he had wanted all his life.

"Its like a dream come true." He said.

I thought about that for a second trying to think of something to say back, finally I just nodded and came over to hug him as well.

"Yah," I managed around my tears and thought back to all that I had heard and seen, "Yah, tell me about it."

Author's notes:

Well that's it for another story. I hope that this one wasn't too weird, and I hope everyone liked it. Like most of the others this story was kicked off by a song. Its name is "Land Of Confusion" by Phil Collins. If anyone wants the lyrics mail me or post 'em on the reviews. Thanks again.

RP1


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